First Lowell Housemaster, Julian Coolidge, Dies at 80

Julian Lowell Coolidge '95, first Master of Lowell House and internationally known professor of Mathematics, emeritus, died yesterday at his home in Cambridge. He was 80.

Coolidge, who jointed the University faculty in 1900, published eight standard works on mathematical subjects and served as president of the Mathematical Association of America. He retired from teaching in 1940 but continued his writing and study. He had been confined to his home by ill health for several years before his death.

Coolidge's colleagues on the faculty yesterday warmly praised his contributions to the University, especially his work at Lowell House, where he became Master in 1930.

Eliot Perkins '23, present Master of Lowell, who served as senior tutor of the House under Coolidge, said, "The present college generation can have no idea of what confronted Julian Lowell Coolidge when he accepted appointment, 25 years since, as one of the first two Masters."

"Lowell House, new and raw from the builders' hands, was absolutely uninformed by any life principle," Perkins continued. "His task was much more than the direction of forces: he had to create forces, the intangibles that give a House life. His concept of the Houses has been and will remain a governing factor in their development."

Degree at Oxford

Born in Brookline, Mass., in 1873, Coolidge graduated from the College in 1895 and then went abroad, where he received in 1897 the first Bachelor of Science degree ever given by Oxford. He then returned to this country, taught at Groton for two years, joined the University faculty in 1900, and in 1902 went back to Europe and received his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn.

Served with Army

He returned to the University in 1904, was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1908 and to Professor in 1918. During the first World War he served as a major in the Army, acting as a liaison officer with the French Army.

Coolidge's associates remember him as a man of great physical energy, unselfishness, and a distinctive sense of humor. His lectures were "popular, vigorous, and never dull," says a former student. He was a man with "a fast, springy walk, a vigorous swing in his left arm, a romping puppy at his heels," commented a CRIMSON editorial when he retired.

Funeral Monday

He leaves his wife, the former Theresa Reynolds, and seven children, one of whom is Prof. John P. Coolidge '35, Director of the Fogg Museum.

Funeral services will be held at 12 noon Monday in Memorial Church.