6 The Forties

The nineteenth annual meeting was held at the University of Georgia on March 29 and 30, 1940. About 300 persons, including 81 members, registered for the meeting. The invited speaker was Tomlinson Fort, Dean of the Graduate School at Lehigh University, who was also one of the Founders of the Section while he was at the University of Alabama. He spoke on ``Mathematics and the Sciences'' at the Friday evening banquet. There was a total of 42 papers delivered at the meeting.

The twentieth annual meeting was held on March 28 and 29, 1941, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The invited speaker was M.A.A. Past Vice-president L.P. Eisenhart of Princeton University, who spoke on ``The Teaching of Mathematics'' at the Friday evening banquet. There were about 200 persons from 47 institutions registered for the meeting, including 51 members. A total of 22 contributed papers was shown on the program. At the business meeting, J.W. Lasley, Jr., of the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill was elected chairman and Ruth W. Stokes of Winthrop College was elected Vice-chairman. The Section agreed to have its next meeting at Emory University in March, 1942.

There were no meetings of the Southeastern Section during the World War II years 1942-1945. Professors Lasley and Stokes remained Chairman and Vice-chairman, respectively, during these years. While some sections of the Association met irregularly during these years, the call of Colonel Henry A. Robinson, our Secretary-Treasurer, to active duty at the U.S. Military Academy made program arrangements a nearly impossible task to perform.

The twenty-fifth annual meeting was held at North Carolina State College at Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 19 and 20, 1946. There were 125 persons registered for the meeting, including 46 members. The invited speaker was G.T. Whyburn of the University of Virginia, who spoke on ``Surface Topology and Mappings'' at the Friday evening banquet. While the price of accommodations at nearby hotels were listed as $6 per day for two in a room, the banquet cost cost rose once again, to $1. There was a total of 20 contributed papers shown on the program.

The twenty-sixth annual meeting, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Section, was held on April 18 and 19, 1947, at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. There were 141 persons registered for the meeting, including 77 members. The invited speaker was L.M. Graves of the University of Chicago, who spoke on ``Undergraduate Mathematics Curricula'' at the Friday evening banquet, as well as on ``Functional Analysis'' at the Saturday morning session. A total of 24 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The twenty-seventh annual meeting was held at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 19 and 20, 1948. The invited speaker was Lt.Col. R.C. Yates of the U.S. Military Academy, who spoke on ``Some Properties of Plane Curves'' at the Saturday morning session. Tomlinson Fort led a discussion on ``Common Problems Due to Overcrowding, Poor Preparation and Inexperienced Instructors'' among the audience. At 4:30 on Friday afternoon, there was a dress parade by the Corps of Cadets in honor of the members of the Association. There were about 150 persons registered for the meeting, including 78 members. A total of 21 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The twenty-eighth annual meeting was held on March 18-19, 1949, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There did not seem to be an invited speaker at this meeting. A total of about 200 persons registered for this meeting, including 106 members. Instead of the traditional Friday evening banquet (and speaker), a barbecue was held at a nearby state park with cost $1. There was a total of 31 papers printed on the program, including three 40-minute addresses by Section Chairman L.A. Dye of The Citadel, by G.B. Huff of Arlington, Massachusetts, and by F.L. Wren of Peabody College.