Page 8 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 4 Summer 2013

PATRICK CULLY: RETIREMENT
More than just the study of shapes, geometry is a door to perceiving the
arrangement of nature. Precise yet mystical.
Patrick Cully uses geometry and the full range of higher mathematics as a
form of exploration, a way to lead students, and himself, toward a profound
perspective on the so-called real world. Math is a tool for everyone, he believes
– not just the academically elite. It is, he says, “a gift to humanity, exposing
students to what’s possible,” a statement that arose just recently, he explains,
in a conversation with a student.
With an intellect of the highest order, Cully yet remains a most humane
teacher and friend. After childhood in Los Alamos, N.M., he attended Reed
College, graduating with
a major in history. He
taught mathematics dur-
ing graduate school at New
York University and then in grades
eight through twelve at the Convent of
the Sacred Heart in New York City, where he
became known for his “joyous spirit,” his excellence
on the classical piano, and his gift, as one student wrote,
“to make mathematics amazing, the way it corresponds to so
many other things in the universe.”
Cully came to St. Paul’s in 1998, where he honed his pedagogical philosophy
that math is not just skill in symbol manipulation, but, more than that, an
essential application in many areas of work and life. “Because of computers,”
he says, “everything in all disciplines is starting to be mathematically modeled.”
“The Pythagorean Theorem never goes away,” he adds.
During his 15 years in Millville, he has taught courses ranging from advanced
linear algebra, complex variables, and abstract algebra to dynamical systems
and introductory tensor analysis – along with geometry, with which he intro-
duces many younger students to the beauty inherent in mathematics. He also
created the department’s course in vector calculus.
Wholly dedicated to his students and advisees, Cully has been the enthusiastic
adviser to the Mathematics Society, an informal liaison with the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and a chaperone for 20 students on a two-week visit to
China. Wherever he travels, he remains an eager student. Visiting Switzerland
while posted with School Year Abroad in France, he visited a museum to view
artist Paul Klee’s use of mathematics and finally managed to locate Albert
Einstein’s old house in Bern – now disguised as a pizza parlor. He spent much
of last summer investigating the general theory of relativity.
Retiring to a home he has maintained in Ireland, Cully expects to spend his
time gardening, traveling, and playing some Chopin, Schumann, and Bach on
his piano. He also wants to explore opportunities to teach math as a volunteer,
possibly to students in Africa “who don’t have the opportunity of . . . ,” stretch-
ing out his arms to indicate the whole of the Lindsay Center, “. . . this.”
And he’ll read mathematics. “I’ve never been able to give it up,” he explains,
“I have a pile of math books by my bed. I just can’t stop.”
Finding Math
in Everyday Life
PETER FINGER 8