William Meade Waters, Jr.
I was born and raised in Atlantic City. New Jersey, where my father --like his father before him - was a fireman. They both retired at the rank of captain, although my father was acting Battalion Chief. Upon retirement, my father attended Wesley Theological Seminary of American University and was subsequently ordained and had a 15 year second career as a Methodist pastor. During this time my mother served several school systems aa a substitute elementary teacher-putting to use the knowledge she had obtained at Glassboro State Teachers college.
I graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1952 and attended the Rutgers University College of Engineering 1952-1955. I spent the summer of 1954 serving as an Engineering Cadet with NJ Public Service Electric and Gas -a co-op experience which helped convince me that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as a civil engineer.
I spent the period from Apr 56 to Jul 59 in the US Army, graduating from the Army Language School [Chinese Mandarin] and serving as a translator/interpreter stationed in Japan and Okinawa with some temporary duty in Korea.
After separation from the service, I attended Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Ky. From Sep 59 to May 61. I was graduated in May of 61 with majors in Mathematics and Physics and secondary certification in both areas. This was also the time and place where I met my wife, who received her degree in English and Drama. We were married on July 8 of 1961.
I was employed by the St Louis Public School System as a math and physics teacher from 1961-1965. I also coached track and cross country as well as teaching evening classes (during 1963) at O'Fallon Technical Community College. While employed in St Louis. I attended Washington University and obtained a masters degree in Mathematics Education.
As an NSF Fellow at Louisiana State University, I was awarded a masters degree in mathematics in 1966.
My pursuit of the PhD began in Fall 1966 when I enrolled at the Florida State University. I spent three years as a TA teaching mathematics and one year as a full time faculty member in mathematics education (teaching high school math and working with pre-service teachers at the FSU Laboratory School). I was officially awarded the degree in Fall 1971.
In Aug 1970, I began my 36 year career at NCSU with a joint appointment in mathematics Education and mathematics. During this period I was twice named to the Academy of Outstanding Teachers, Served as Math Ed Director of Graduate Studies from 1980-1999; directed ten masters thesis and co-directed or directed ten PhD dissertations. In 1998 I was selected to visit China as a representative of the school of Education. I officially retired and was given Emeritus status on 01 Jul 06, although I continue to teach the History of Mathematics.
Additional honors I have received include election to Phi Delta Kappa at Washington University ( it was at that time a politically incorrect male graduate level honor fraternity-now a coeducational professional society); Pi Mu Epsilon -honorary in math at LSU. and the Orthogonal Medal for contributions to the field of graphic communications and its relationship to the history of mathematics and geometry. In the fall of 2006 , the NC Council of Teachers of Mathematics awarded me the W. W. Rankin Award for contributions to mathematics and the teaching of mathematics in North Carolina.
Over the years , I have presented papers at more than 50 national, regional and state conferences including NCTM, NCCTM, School Science and Math Assoc, National Assoc of Social Science teachers, ASSE and various SDPI workshops.
Publications include more than 25 articles in journals including Math Teacher, Arithmetic Tchr, School Sci & Math, Journ of Recreational Math, Journ of Math and Computer Educ. The majority of these papers deal with concepts in geometry and the teaching of geometry, number theory, and advanced mathematics for secondary students and teachers. I have also authored or coauthored a dozen or so research reports, position papers and state of the art papers.
I would like to recognize the encouragement of my family over the years. In addition to my parents, my sisters-one a former special ed teacher in NJ and the other a professor of English at WV Tech- influenced their older brother in his choice of his life work.
None of this would have been possible without the support of my wife, Jeanne, and our family. After we moved to Raleigh, Jeanne went to Meredith to obtain her teaching certificate. She retired from teaching second grade in 1994 due to disability. Her sacrifices and ability to run a household enabled us to survive graduate school as well as all he usual ups and downs over 40 years of marriage. We are very proud of children, William M Waters III and Karen Lynn Waters. William graduated from NC Central with degrees in Art and Spanish. He recently obtained his MFA from Vermont College. Karen is an alumna of NCSU (English } and presently working in Florida.
Finally, I wish to thank my colleagues in both the Math Ed and Math Departments for their support for, and encouragement of, a fellow faculty member who tried very hard to bridge the gap between the two departments .