Kenneth P. Bogart, professor of mathematics, died in a biking accident March 30 while on sabbatical in California. Bogart was 62 and is survived by his wife, Ruth, and two children.
Bogart joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1968 and led research in various branches of combinatorics, a field that relates closely to the process of counting and the study of how people learn mathematics. Bogart chaired the mathematics department from 1989 to 1995, leading the soon-to-culminate effort to move the department to a new building.
Bogart received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1968 after graduating from Marietta College in Ohio in 1965. During his career, he published nine books and wrote over 60 articles. While on sabbatical in California, Bogart completed work on his book, "Discrete Mathematics for Computer Sciences," which he co-authored with Clifford Stein and Robert Drysdale. Key College Publishing plans to publish the book in May.
Around 1995 Bogart began to focus his research on how people learn mathematics and how this can be applied to the teaching of undergraduates. This interest led to his involvement in a large-scale revision of the teacher seminar program and his leadership in a grant program, Teaching Introductory Combinatorics by Guided Discovery. He also participated in the Math Across the Curriculum program.
Combinatorics involves the study of combining objects into arrangements. Bogart implemented his "guided discovery" processes into the teaching of combinatorics by giving students a problem and letting them work through it and learn on their own, a method that worked particularly well, according to professor emeritus of mathematics Laurie Snell.
"He was always a very active member of the faculty and a real livewire. Ken was real fun to work with and everyone thought very highly of him," Snell said. "Ken was also an extremely bright fellow who worked with me some in probability theory and could solve problems infinitely faster than I could."
Mathematics chairman Thomas Shemanske noted that Bogart's many years at Dartmouth were distinguished by his "sincere dedication to teaching."
"Ken was deeply involved in the undergraduate and graduate programs through his time at Dartmouth," Shemanske said.
Bogart's family is attending a memorial service in California and will hold a separate service in New Hampshire later. Details about the memorial service as well as an extended obituary of Bogart will be released by the Math Department at http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/news.
