Professor Steve Mitchell died on August 17, 2017, on his 66th birthday. Steve came to UW in 1975 as a graduate student after dropping out of Stanford, choosing instead to take an independent path to study mathematics and go rock climbing throughout the west. After obtaining his PhD in 1981, Steve spent two years at MIT as a Moore instructor, followed by a year at Princeton and a year back at UW as an NSF postdoctoral fellow. He would never leave UW again, taking a regular faculty position when his postdoc ended. As modest a mathematician as he was outstanding, Steve would later receive an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship. He was passionate about teaching and beloved by generations of students. Nothing, not even his protracted bout with cancer, would keep him out of the classroom. He was excited by the prospect of teaching the graduate manifolds course in the coming year, letting go reluctantly as he succumbed at last.
A memorial service will be held at 4:00 PM on October 3rd in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall on the UW campus.