Charles McCarthy
In Memoriam
Charles Alan McCarthy (August 7, 1936-October 11, 2018) was killed in a vehicle/pedestrian accident on October 11 in Portland, OR, where he had lived for many years. He is survived by his three sons and three grandchildren, his loving partner Maryann Roulier and her family, a long-time companion Flauren Ricketts, his ex-wife, Carol Lilygren, and many friends.
In 1956 Charles earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester (New York). In 1959, he completed a Ph.D. from Yale University under the direction of Einar Hille. His dissertation was in functional analysis: “On the Functional Calculus for Operators on a Banach Space.” From 1959-1961, he did post-doctoral work at MIT.
In 1961, Charles was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, promoted to associate professor in 1963, and in 1967 he became full professor. He had 20 publications in his areas of research: functional analysis, Banach algebras, Lp estimates, commuting Boolean algebras of projections on a Banach space, linear operators on Hilbert and Banach spaces and on finite-dimensional spaces (i.e., matrices). He collaborated on research with department colleagues Nestor Rivière and Walter Littman. He also supervised 2 Ph.D. students: Roger Countryman in 1966 and Ronald Rietz in 1972. Charles retired in 2002.
While living in the Twin Cities, Charles was very active with the Lake Harriet Streetcar Museum, operating and restoring streetcars as well as building structures. After moving to Portland, he continued this interest, working with the Willamette Shore Trolley. He was also an active hiker with Portland Parks and Recreation, often driving the vans to the trailheads. In addition, he was a lover of classical chamber music. He was a fit, sharp, fun, extremely thoughtful and kind man who should have had many years left to live and love.
A celebration of his life was held on November 11 in Portland, OR, hosted by Maryann Roulier and attended by his and her families, his hiking buddies, his trolley buddies, his church friends, and his close neighbors, all of whom would caution you to drive carefully as though YOUR loved ones were in the crosswalk.
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