Coxeter Obit
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In Memoriam

Donald Coxeter, 1907-2003

Harold Scott McDonald Coxeter, regarded as the greatest 20th century geometer, passed away on March 31, 2003 at the age of 96. He was a Professor of Math at Univ. of Toronto from 1936 until his death. When once asked about how he achieved a long life, he replied: "I am never bored".

Coxeter is noted for the completion of Euclid's work by giving the complete classification of regular polytopes in n-dimensions using his "Coxeter groups". He made many other important contributions to the theory of polytopes, non-Euclidean geometry, group theory, and combinatorics. He was a prolific author with over 200 publications including many important books, such as Regular Polytopes (1947, reprinted in 1973) and his masterful Introduction to Geometry (1961, reprinted in 1989).

I was privileged to take classes from Coxeter for several years as an undergraduate, and still feel the lively enthusiasm for geometry that he instilled in his students. Donald Coxeter will be missed by us all.