Earle Hedrick

1937-1942

The fourth of the residence halls on the west side of the campus was named Hedrick Hall in 1963 (completed in 1964) in honor of Earle Raymond Hedrick, Vice President and Provost of UCLA from 1937 until his retirement in 1942. Prior to his elevation he had been a member of the mathematics department for 13 years.

Dr. Hedrick was educated at the universities of Michigan, Harvard (receiving his Bachelor’s degree at the age of 17), and Gottingen, Germany. At age 20 he had received his Ph.D. from Gottingen and was a guest lecturer at the Sorbonne while doing postdoctoral work there. Before coming to UCLA in 1924, he taught at the Sheffield Scientific School (Yale) and the University of Missouri, and built a reputation as one of America’s outstanding mathematicians. He served as President of the American Mathematical Association, was editor of the American Mathematics Monthly for 21 years, and wrote and edited many articles and textbooks on mathematics, which he called “The Queen of the Sciences.” He spoke seven languages and read an additional five.

A tall, courtly man with a delightful sense of humor, Dr. Hedrick jokingly referred to his appointment as Vice President and Provost as “The Accident,” telling friends that “I no longer have any intellectual interests — I just sit and talk to people.” He was the father of ten children, all of whom adored him. Four of them — Dorothy, Amy, Clyde and Frank — attended UCLA. Dr. Hedrick died in 1943