With reverence and sorrow for those who knew him best, we would like to acknowledge the late Dr. Dwight Lahr who passed away in Lyme, NH on Monday, December 26th, 2016. To many in the BADA family, we first interacted with Dr. Lahr our freshmen year as Professor Lahr for our first mathematics course. Those who grew to know him better and interact with him daily describe him as an outstanding faculty member and professional who played a great role in pushing for the growth and support of diversity at Dartmouth.
C. Dwight Lahr was named professor of mathematics emeritus at Dartmouth College. He first joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1975 as an assistant professor. Dr. Lahr was promoted to associate professor in 1981 and assumed the roles of associate dean of faculty for sciences and dean of graduate studies. He was named full professor and dean of the faculty in 1984, thus becoming the first Black professor to get tenure in an Ivy League School department of mathematics. He retired from teaching at Dartmouth in 2014.
Dwight never forgot his roots and remained deeply committed to improving inner city public education and making math accessible and understandable to all levels. Beginning in 1994, he founded and directed CLIPP, a Dartmouth Summer Institute to develop computer literacy for inner city public school teachers. CLIPP also provided computer equipment to their schools.
A summary of some of his work can be found here.
Dr. C. Dwight Lahr is survived by his wife Beatriz; his sister Deidre; his children Katerina, Sonia, Emilio, Maria, Perico, Elena, and Circe; and nine grandchildren.
Rest in Peace