The third word of the Boston Globe obituary for mathematics Professor George Mackey is “tweed.” An ardent worshipper of the pure aesthetic beauty of mathematics, Mackey embodied much of the ideal of the classic academic. He obeyed a rigorous personal schedule that mandated 15 minutes per working hour of extra-diciplinary reading, to “cleanse his palate,” according to the Globe, and he was equally fastidious about allotting time to his family. Above all, there recur in the Globe and Harvard Gazette obituaries accounts of his mistrust of “cozy preconceptions.” The Globe describes him as posessing a “bracing sense of ethics.” He was a man to whom careful thought and inquiry into all things mattered deeply.

Born in St. Louis, he moved as a child with his family to Florida and then to Houston. His father wanted him to go into business, but a chemistry book captured his imagination at age 15. After graduating from Rice University, he received his master’s and doctorate from Harvard in 1942. One year later he began teaching at Harvard, and retired 42 years later.