OBITUARY

DR. WILBUR JÓNSSON (1936-2022)

Former colleague, Professor Wilbur Jacob Jónsson, passed away in Montréal on November 5, 2022. He was 86 years old.

Born in Winnipeg on September 18, 1936, Wilbur was the son of Icelandic immigrants Kristin Jónsson and Jacob Jacobson, of Gimli, Manitoba. He grew up in Winnipeg and received his Bachelor’s (1958) and Master’s (1959) degrees in Mathematics from the University of Manitoba. During this time, he was a proud member of the University of Manitoba’s team which competed in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, placing fourth overall.

Wilbur then traveled to Tübingen, Germany, where he earned his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) at Eberhard Karls Universität in 1963. His thesis, entitled “Transitivität und Homogenität projektiver Ebenen,” was written under the supervision of Günter Pickert and Helmut Wielandt; it formed the basis of a 1962 paper in Mathematische Zeitschrift (vol. 80, pp. 269-292).

Upon graduation, Wilbur worked for a time at the University of Manitoba and at the University of Birmingham before joining McGill University as an Assistant Professor in 1966. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1969 and retired after 48 years of service in 2014.

Over the course of his career, Wilbur authored or coauthored a dozen research papers and supervised one PhD student (Patrick D’Arcy, PhD, 1972), who is now an independent computer software professional in New Zealand. Wilbur was very proud of his students, colleagues, and friends - recent and past - and regaled all who would listen with their exploits, including one former classmate who was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics (Jim Peebles) and one colleague (Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga) who became President of Latvia.

Wilbur will be remembered for sharing his love of fine food, wine, port, rare maps, stamps, and books as well as the many relationships he fostered across the world. He was an avid reader, and conversant on almost every subject in multiple languages.

At Wilbur’s request, no formal funeral service will take place. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers their sincere condolences to Wilbur's bereaved family members and friends.

Written by Christian Genest, Interim Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics