by D. S. Jones, rev.
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Erdélyi [formerly Diamand], Arthur (1908-1977), mathematician, was born on 2 October 1908 in Budapest, the eldest of the five children (three sons and two daughters) of Ignác József ármin Diamand, a shoe merchant, and his wife, Frederike (Frieda) Roth. After his father's death his mother married Paul Erdélyi, who subsequently adopted Arthur. His secondary school education was at Madách Imre Fögimnázium in Budapest (1918-26). He started his university education in 1926, studying electrical engineering in the Deutsche Technische Hochschule at Brno, Czechoslovakia. He passed the first examination with distinction in 1928 but left, without completing the course, for employment as a mathematician. He acquired the degree of doctor rerum naturalium from the German University of Prague in 1938 having submitted a collection of his published papers in lieu of a thesis. He was awarded his doctorate at the last degree ceremony before the university was taken over by the Nazis.
To escape the Nazi persecution of Jews, Erdélyi emigrated to Britain and arrived at Edinburgh in February 1939. At first he was supported by a research grant from the university and financial aid from the Academic Assistance Council (later the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning Limited). This state of affairs continued, despite the award of the degree of DSc by Edinburgh in 1940, until 1941 when he was appointed assistant lecturer. He was promoted to a lectureship in 1942. At this time he was also a consultant to the Admiralty and, with others, was responsible for the proposal to create a national mathematical laboratory which eventually became part of the National Physical Laboratory.
Erdélyi married, on 4 November 1942, Eva Griffel, daughter of Frederic Neuburg, of Litomeÿrÿice, Czechoslovakia, and Helene (née Feitis), second cousin of Max Perutz. They had no children, but there was a stepson who came to know Erdélyi well when he was a teenager. Erdélyi became a naturalized British citizen in 1947 and was promoted to a senior lectureship in 1948, having been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1945. His two brothers and one of his sisters died in a concentration camp during the war.
In 1949 Erdélyi was appointed as full professor by the California Institute of Technology, one of his duties being the direction of the Bateman project, the task of editing the mass of notes left by Harry Bateman on his death in 1946. With the assistance of W. Magnus, F. Oberhettinger, and F. G. Tricomi three volumes of Higher Transcendental Functions and two volumes of Tables of Integral Transforms were ready by 1951. Erdélyi carried out the mammoth job of seeing the five volumes through the press while fulfilling a normal teaching load at the institute, supervising two research students, and looking after his wife who had contracted tuberculosis. These books have been used and referred to by so many scientists that their impact on science is immeasurable and the scientific community is indebted to Erdélyi for his devotion to this project. He was elected a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin in 1953.
Erdélyi returned to Edinburgh as head of department and professor of mathematics in 1964 at considerable personal sacrifice because he felt that his alma mater (as he regarded it) needed his help. Here, as a talented violinist and violist, he participated in chamber music and, as a keen walker, explored the Scottish highlands, awakening a deep interest in geology (and a passion for deserts when he was abroad).
Erdélyi contributed nearly 200 papers to learned journals and his quality was recognized by election as FRS in 1975. In 1977 he had the rare distinction of being awarded the Gunning Victoria jubilee prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was also president of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (1971-2). A special issue of Applicable Analysis and the Proceedings of the 1978 Dundee conference on differential equations were dedicated to him. He was a superb expositor and lecturer, who received ovations at international colloquia. One reason for this was his mastery of special functions, for he unveiled the beauty of the underlying patterns with typical elegance. Another area in which he was a major figure was asymptotics; his systematic exploitation of asymptotic scale and Volterra singular integral equations provided a general theory for differential equations and subsequently for the asymptotic evaluation of integrals. Later he was involved in laying the foundations of matched asymptotic expansions. Another field for which he forged the fundamental tools was that of fractional integration--the Erdélyi-Kober operations, leading to many applications in integral and partial differential equations, are now basic. Erdélyi's innovation and exposition initiated a considerable amount of modern research.
As a head of department Erdélyi displayed courtesy and faultless manners to all. Level-headed and tolerant, he was always in command and his natural authority was immediately recognizable. His dress was dapper, with spotless white shirts and bow tie. His cheerful disposition was unaffected by ill health in later years. He remarked, on appearing in the department not long after major surgery: 'My doctor forbade me to teach; he did not forbid me to learn' (Jones, 276). Erdélyi died suddenly of heart failure on 12 December 1977, at his home, 26 Gilmour Road, Edinburgh. He was survived by his wife.
D. S. JONES, rev.
Sources
D. S. Jones, Memoirs FRS, 25 (1979), 267-86
WWW
d. cert.
Archives
Bodl. Oxf., Society for the Protection of Science and Learning; Home Office files
Likenesses
I. N. Sneddon, photograph, 1973, repro. in Memoirs FRS [facing p. 267] [see illus.]
photographs, RS
Wealth at death
£52,667.30--in UK: confirmation, 10 April 1978, CCI
£132,650.75--outside UK: confirmation, 10 April 1978, CCI
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