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Gene Gale ’57

May 30, 2020, in Corvallis, Oregon.

Gene was a Renaissance man with a particular interest in automobiles, history, genealogy, and music, combined with a fantastic grasp of mathematics and its literature.

At Reed he wrote his thesis “Canonical Product Decomposition of Unimodular 2x2 Matrices,” advised by Prof. Burrowes Hunt [mathematics 1953–77], and earned a bachelor’s in mathematics. Gene continued his studies in mathematics at the University of Oregon, where he received a master’s, and at UC Berkeley, where he received a doctorate.

Gene was admired by those who knew him and much loved by family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his son Guy Vega. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughters, Tanya Bottini, Cristina Vanderburgh, and Diana Smith; his sons Brook Gale, Ricardo, Rodrigo, Jeffrey, Dan, and Michael Vega; thirty grandkids and two great grandkids.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Fall 2023

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