Martin Gardner passed recently, but I did not know it. I remembered his columns in Scientific American recently, Googled him and found that he had just died. Spooky! If Martin were here he would beat me about the head and shoulders for such magical thinking. And I would enjoy it.
Martin had a fabulous mind paired with a solid spirit. A defender of scientific common sense but no parochial master from the white tower, he struggled through Calculus, only to become a leading educator of the beauty and power of modern mathematics. He introduced me to Escher, and to logic.
Mr. Gardner paid me several more favors. He notably revealed the true life of a mystic who’s books I had admired, and puzzled over: Krisnamurti. In addition he annotated several books, include Alice in Wonderland. This has recently been reprinted in a very nice format. Today I think of Martin as the Caterpillar taking Alice to task for mixing her mixed up feelings with her mixed up situation.
Thank you Martin for all the help you’ve offered me. Thank you for validating my desire to work within science and to still fondly imagine a creator and his unfolding pattern. I look forward to many more lessons from your prolific library in the years to come.
- Martin Gardener at Wikipedia
- M. C. Escher at Wikipedia
