Richard Speers
Richard Speers, associate professor of math and former chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, died Feb. 18, of an apparent heart attack, at his home in Saratoga. He was 67.
Born Dec. 19, 1937, Dick earned bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in mathematics and a doctoral degree in algebra at the University of Kansas. He also pursued graduate study in German at Yale University and at Freiburg University in Germany. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Sigma Xi, he was the recipient of a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Dankstipendium from the German Academic Exchange Service. Dick鈥檚 research specialty was ring theory. He published articles on simple graded rings in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society and Duke Mathematics Journal.
He joined the Skidmore community in 1967 and chaired the department from 1975 to 1983. He was Skidmore鈥檚 expert on the computer software Mathematica.
Department colleague Dan Hurwitz (whom Speers hired) recalled that Dick oversaw 鈥測ears of incredible growth鈥� in the department. He said, 鈥淒ick was a very open, calm, humorous, and lovely colleague.鈥� He added that the classes that Speers taught 鈥渨ere enormously interactive, with students doing a great deal of the teaching.鈥� And he cited him as 鈥渙ne of the most broadly educated people I knew,鈥� with vast knowledge about the history of mathematics as well as languages, music, and other fields. Hurwitz, whose wife is from Germany, remembers that Speers would often speak in German with them.Dick was also the piano accompanist when Hurwitz鈥檚 daughter completed her New York State Schools of Music Association evaluation.
Dick regularly visited Professor Emerita of Foreign Languages Helga Doblin, and the two would read German literature aloud. Isabelle Williams, professor emerita of music, called him 鈥渁 very fine musician,鈥� citing his contributions as a bassoonist in the Skidmore Orchestra, his participation with the Saratoga Chamber Singers, and his piano and organ playing in Saratoga Springs, Albany, and Troy. He studied continuo playing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed most of the requirements for a degree in music from Skidmore鈥檚 University Without Walls. He taught piano privately to a number of pupils (many of them offspring of his Skidmore colleagues) and had season tickets to the Albany Symphony. Informally he played piano in a trio with English Professor Murray Levith on violin and Doblin on cello.
Dick also was a talented cook. Una Bray, associate professor of mathematics, called him 鈥渙ne of the finest cooks at Skidmore鈥� and reported that, as a single father, 鈥淒ick cooked his way through Julia Child鈥� so that his twin sons would have good, nourishing meals, properly prepared. His good friend Claire Olds, retired dean of students, would often groom Dick鈥檚 two poodles in exchange for a home-cooked meal. Frequently it was Wednesday鈥檚 featured recipe from The New York Times, she recalled.
Speers loved cryptic crossword puzzles, an interest that he and Williams shared, and he was an animal lover four of whose five cats were named after active volcanoes.
Peg Tacardon, associate professor of social work, especially mentioned Dick鈥檚 devotion to his twins, Kurt and Karl, who graduated from Skidmore in 1992. Kurt, a ranger with the National Park Service at Yellowstone, majored in chemistry, and Karl, completing a medical residency in Key West, Fla., majored in physics. 鈥淗e loved parenting鈥攖hose boys were his world,鈥� Peg said. 鈥淗e was always there for his boys, for his students, and for his friends. He had one of the kindest, biggest hearts that I know.鈥�