Jack Levine
PAMS GRAMS - Up Close and Personal Faculty Feature
(Found in University Archives UA 141.67. 1986-87 Folder)
An excerpt from an interview conducted on December 31, 1986 between Jack Levine, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Mathematics, and E. E. Burniston, Head of the Mathematics Department.
| EEB: | Jack, when did you come to N. C. State University? |
| JL: | I came in 1935 as an instructor at a salary of $1,500. At that time there were about ten faculty members in the department. We were on the quarter system then andthe teaching load for faculty with a Ph.D. was 16 credits per quarter and for those without a Ph.D. it was 18 credits per quarter. |
| EEB: | Was this "lighter" teaching load for Ph.D. faculty in order to encourage you to do research? |
| JL: | There was little emphasis on research. If you wanted to do it that was fine, but there were no specific rewards for it. In fact, I typed all my own papers for several years.. |
| EEB: | You were born in California, right? |
| JL: | No, I was actually born in Philadelphia, but the family moved to California. |
| EEB: | Were either of your parents mathematicians? |
| JL: | No. My father was in the grocery business. |
| EEB: | You did your undergraduate work at UCLA. Was it at this point that you turned to mathematics? |
| JL: | No. In the fourth grade, I became interested in mathematics because it was my best topic. |
| EEB: | Now, after coming to N. C. State in 1935 you then went to Washington in 1942 to work as a civilian on cryptanalysis, so that you were not in any of the armed services? |
| JL: | Actually I worked as a civilian in the Signal Intelligence Service at the beginning of the war but then during the war I was in the Army doing the exact same job, for less pay. I rose to the rank of Technical Sergeant. Much of the work I did there is still classified. By the way, I have never told anyone this, but I was awarded the Legion of Merit for my for my work. The citation did not say why - again because of the classified material. |
| EEB: | What did you do after the war? |
| JL: | Well, I came back to N. C. State University where to my surprise I now had the rank of Professor. |
| EEB: | How could it be that you were made Full Professor without any input from you? |
| JL: | Well, department heads in those days had a good deal more power than they do today. No committees were needed to promote faculty, the department head decided who was to be promoted. I would have been promoted if I had been here. |
| EEB: | Ummm! How things have changed. Jack, how is it that you managed to maintain your research interests in cryptography for over 50 years? |
| JL: | Cryptography is my hobby. I enjoy doing it. Years ago there were very few mathematicians working in this area but today there are a good many prestigious mathematicians studying cryptography, in particular algebraic cryptography, which by the way is an expression I invented. My pattern work list, which I produced in the 70's, is now the standard work in this area. |
| EEB: | Tell me about this. |
| JL: | What I did was to take Webster's Unabridged Dictionary which has over 500,000 words in it, and copied each word and classified it by its pattern. In other words, it you wanted to know all six-letter words where the first and fourth letter were the same, you could to do my book and find all the words with that pattern quickly. |
| EEB: | Let me ge this straight, now. You copied out all the words in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary? |
| JL: | Yes, In fact, I started with the second edition and while I was doing this, the third edition came out and I more or less had to start the whole thing again. That was a pain. |
| EEB: | Ho long did it take you to do this? |
| JL: | About 15 years. I had the word list published by the print shop here on campus at my own expense and gave the copies to members of the American Cryptogram Association, of which I am a past president. Now because of the very limited number of copies, it has become a valuable item. It also probably ruined my eye sight. |
| EEB: | Did you ever move away from Raleigh other than during the war? For example, did you ever take a sabbatical? |
| JL: | No, I never took a sabbatical. I do not like to travel. When my wife was alive, sometimes we went to California in the summer. |
| EEB: | Talking about travel, tell me about your car. |
| JL: | I bought my present car in the fall of 1971. I only use it for coming to the college and going to the grocery store. |
| EEB: | How many miles do you have on the car, Jack? |
| JL: | It is just in the low 20's. |
| EEB: | Stitz(inger) tells me that when the Hillsborough Street A & P closed, you were probably more inconvenienced than anyone else in Raleigh. |
| JL: | That's true. I could always go in and pick up my groceries on the way home. Now I have to make a trip to the Big Star in Cameron Village. Stitz and I met and planned the route that I should take. One time I thought I needed to drive to Cary and Marlin told me his secret route, but I never did go. |
| EEB: | Do you plan to make any changes in your life in the next few years? |
| JL: | No. Mathematics is my life, together with my friends in the Department. |
Jack is now 79 years of age and still publishes from two to four papers per year. He teaches classes without pay and he research work includes tensors, differential geometry, mathematical physics, combinatorial analysis, as well as algebraic cryptography. His publications now number over 100. He was named a North Carolina State University Outstanding Teacher in 1970 and has an award named after him, the Levine-Anderson Award, which is given to the North Carolina State University student who has the best score on the Putnam Examination. This Award was established by Jack, and through the contributions of others he has also authored another definitive work, the "United States Cryptographic Patents 1861-1981" This work lists every single patent to do with cryptography issued in the indicated periods, with the number of the patent, the inventor and the date.
Over the years, he has directed 6 M.S. thesis students and 12 Ph. D. students. Three of the latter are full professors at Clemson University including the department head, John Fulton.