Monty Joseph Strauss

Monty Joseph Strauss was born to Milton and Ann Schloss Strauss on August 26, 1945, in Tyler, Texas, and died on September 9, 2022 in Plano, Texas. His father died in 1954, and his mother married Alfred Salfield in 1955: all predeceased him, as did his brother, Larry S. Strauss. He is survived by his wife, Jane L. Winer of Plano TX; his sister, Susie Salfield Avnery of Dallas; and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews. Monty graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas (1963). At Rice University, he was a National Merit Scholar, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and earned the Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in mathematics (1967). He earned the Ph.D. in mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University (1971), where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. He joined the Department of Mathematics of Texas Tech University as Assistant Professor (1971), was promoted to Associate Professor (1975) and to Professor (1985), and retired in 2010. He published research in pure and applied mathematics, received the first NSF research grant in his department, co-authored several editions of Calculus, a three-semester college textbook, served on the Faculty Senate and its predecessor, the Faculty Council Executive Committee, and served as Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Associate Chair of Mathematics. He served the Graduate School for a decade, as Associate Dean for Admissions and Information Systems and as Senior Associate Dean. He served on the Tenure Policy Task Force that rewrote the tenure policy and helped resolve TTU's tenure crisis (1986), and was an officer of the Texas Association of College Teachers. He served on the steering committee that brought a Phi Beta Kappa chapter to TTU and was a founder of PBK of West Texas-Eastern New Mexico. He co-directed the multi-year NSF-funded South Plains Mathematics Scholars Project. He received numerous Outstanding Mathematics Faculty awards and Honors College Outstanding Faculty Member recognitions, including the first Honors College Outstanding Faculty medallion. He and Jane endowed six scholarships at TTU. He was a life member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, and served the national mathematics community, organizing conferences and reviewing for journals, publishers, and federal granting agencies. Monty collected stamps from childhood on, developed the definitive collection of mathematics and mathematicians on stamps world-wide, and founded and served as president of an international organization of mathematical philatelists, writing numerous articles for its newsletter, Philamath. Having grown up in Temple Emanu-el in Dallas, he was national vice president of the Student Zionist Organization of America at NYU, and he was responsible for securing the charter of Hillel for TTU, serving as faculty adviser for Hillel and its predecessor, the Jewish Student Organization, for seventeen years. He was a member of Lubbock's Congregation Shaareth Israel from 1971 until his death, serving as an officer or board member for many years including four terms as President. In December 2018, Monty and Jane moved to The Legacy Willow Bend, Plano, where they were also members of Temple Shalom Dallas. With Jane, he was the 1995 honoree of Israel Bonds in Lubbock, and he was a Life Associate Member of Hadassah. In retirement, Monty and Jane cruised the world until Jane's cancer diagnosis in 2018. The funeral service, under the auspices of Sanders Funeral Home of Lubbock, will be conducted by Rabbi Deborah Goldmann at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at Congregation Shaareth Israel followed by burial at City of Lubbock Cemetery. Memorial services will be conducted at The Legacy and Temple Shalom at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to the Monty J. Strauss Scholarship in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at TTU, P.O. Box 41081, Lubbock TX 79409-1081; Congregation Shaareth Israel, P.O. Box 93594, Lubbock TX 79493; the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104; or Hadassah, P.O. Box 795774, Dallas TX 75379; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, DC 20024-2126.

Monty Joseph Strauss

August 26, 1945 - September 9, 2022