Two Pounds

by Charlie Fogel

People today tend to forget that we also had some unusually gifted faculty members when the university was a private institution. Some also had particular distinguishing traits. One such professor was Vivian Pound, whom I had for an advanced mathematics course. He was what authors mean when they write about absent-minded professors. He'd get so absorbed in a problem he'd sometimes forget what was around him.

We had a class - I think it was Differential Equations - and the bell rang as a problem was being done on the board. It wasn't quite done, but everyone left except Vivian Pound. He was a real scholar. He wanted the problem finished, so he did so himself just as I came back to the room to reclaim a forgotten notebook.

One day, a member of the medical faculty was leaving the Main Street campus just before Vivian did. Vivian, apparently engrossed in some problem, followed the other fellow's car to a medical supply store on Main St. When the doctor got out of his car, he was surprised to see Vivian parked behind him, and asked: "What are you doing here, Vivian?" Vivian looked around and said: "I don't know. I didn't want to come here."

Some years later, I joined the faculty and met Robert Pound, Vivian's son, who was earning his baccalaureate degree at UB. Bob went on to have a very distinguished career in Physics, even becoming chairman of that department at Harvard, despite not having obtained his doctorate. The reason for the latter was not due to absent-mindedness, however. He was so involved in research, he did not have the time or inclination to complete the other requirements for a doctorate.