William S. Hatcher

William S. Hatcher
William S. Hatcher of Canada in 2005
BornSeptember 20, 1935
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
DiedNovember 27, 2005
Stratford, Ontario, Canada
NSA memberSwitzerland
1962 - 1965
Canada
1983 - 1991
Russia
1996 - 1997
 Works •  Media

William S. Hatcher (September 20, 1935 - November 27, 2005) was an American Bahá’í who served on the National Spiritual Assemblies of Switzerland, Canada, and Russia. He also assisted with the establishment of the Association for Bahá’í Studies and wrote several works on the Faith. In his professional career he was an academic particularly in the fields of mathematics and philosophy.

Biography[edit]

Hatcher was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1935. He had a younger brother, John.[1] He was raised as a Protestant and after completing an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree he decided to become a minister and received a scholarship to attend Yale Divinity School. He had studied the Bahá’í Faith for several years and joined the religion in 1957, changing his career path and studying mathematics as a result. In his personal life he married Judith Bernstein in 1959 and they went on to have three children.[2]

In the early 1960's Hatcher moved to Switzerland to complete postgraduate studies and he completed a Doctorate in mathematics at the University of Neuchatel in 1963 then worked as an instructor at the University for a year. He returned to the United States in 1965 where he secured a position as a Professor of mathematics at the University of Toledo in Ohio working there for the next three years. [2]

Hatcher moved to Canada in 1968 where he worked as a Professor at Laval University from 1968 to 1995. He was invited to move to St. Petersburg, Russia, to conduct research at the Steklov Mathematical Institute and he did so from 1996 until 1997 when he returned to Switzerland to serve as the Chair of the Department of Ethics at the Bahá’í inspired Landegg International University. He worked at Landegg until 2003.[2]

In 2005 Hatcher passed in Stratford, Canada. The Universal House of Justice stated the following in a message conveyed after his passing:

The Bahá’í world has lost one of its brightest minds, one of its most prolific pens. He will long be remembered for his stalwart faith, forceful exposition, and penetrating insights.[2]

Publications[edit]

Books on Philosophy & Religion[edit]

Books on Mathematics[edit]

  • 1964 - Theory and Applications of a Syntactical Notion of the Equivalence of Formal Logical Systems
  • 1978 - Absolute Algebra, with S. Whitney.
  • 1982 - The Logical Foundations of Mathematics
  • 1994 - Preservation Theory, with Michel Hebert.

Articles[edit]

Talks[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ https://bahai-library.org/maneck_hatcher_love_enshrined
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jonah Winters (comp.), William S. Hatcher, 1935-2005, William S. Hatcher Library, 2008, availaible at Baha'iLibraryOnline]
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