7 The Fifties

The twenty-ninth annual meeting was held at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, on April 7 and 8, 1950. There were about 250 people registered for the meeting, including 111 members. The invited speaker was Walter S. Snyder of the University of Tennessee, who spoke on ``The Monte Carlo Method'' at the Friday evening banquet. A total of 44 contributed papers was shown on the program. This appears to be the first time that student papers were printed on the program and presented at the meeting. There were 10 student papers from 5 schools in the Section: Agnes Scott College (2), Rollins College (1), University of Georgia (4), University of Florida (2) and Vanderbilt University (1).

The thirtieth annual meeting was held on March 16 and 17, 1951, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The invited speaker was M.A.A. President Saunders MacLane of the University of Chicago, who spoke on ``What Makes Students Think?'' at the Friday evening banquet, as well as on ``Connectivity and Homotopy Groups'' at the Saturday morning session. A total of 33 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The thirty-first annual meeting was held at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, on March 21 and 22, 1951. The invited speaker was A.C. Coble of the University of Illinois and visiting professor at the University of North Carolina, who spoke at the Friday evening banquet. A total of about 250 persons registered for the meeting, including 126 members. There were 38 contributed papers listed on the program. In the directions for getting to Agnes Scott College, the following information was included: taxi fare from downtown Atlanta was about $2 and trolleys cost 15¢ per ride (or 4 tokens for 45¢). A sightseeing tour of the area was planned for Saturday afternoon under the direction of C.L. Cope of the Atlanta Division, University of Georgia (now Georgia State University).

The thirty-second annual meeting was held on March 13-14, 1953, at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn, Alabama. There were about 200 persons registered for the meeting, including 108 members. There did not appear to be any invited speaker from outside the boundary of the Section. The program listed two talks on Friday evening, one by Section Chairman H.K. Fulmer of the Georgia School of Technology and the other by E.A. Cameron of the University of North Carolina. There did not seem to be a dinner or banquet for the group at this meeting. A total of 37 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The thirty-third annual meeting was held on March 19 and 20, 1954, at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. The invited speaker was Emil Artin of Princeton University, who spoke on ``The Theory of Braids'' at the Friday evening banquet. About 200 people were registered at the meeting, including 116 members. A total of 43 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The thirty-fourth annual meeting was held at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute in Cookeville, Tennessee, on March 11 and 12, 1955. The invited speakers were M.A.A. President E.J. McShane of the University of Virginia and A.W. Tucker of Princeton University. About 180 people registered for the meeting, including 99 members. A total of 39 contributed papers was shown on the program. The Friday evening banquet cost rose to $1.50, though motel accommodations remained a modest $4.00 for single rooms.

The thirty-fifth annual meeting was held on March 16 and 17, 1956, at the U.S. Navy Supply School on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. There were about 250 persons registered at the meeting, including 148 members. The invited speaker was George Polya of Stanford University. A total of 49 contributed papers was shown on the program. For the first time, the MONTHLY did not list the names of the members in attendance at this meeting.

The thirty-sixth annual meeting was held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 15 and 16, 1957. The invited speaker was Paul Halmos of the University of Chicago, who spoke on ``One + One = One'' on Friday evening. For the second time in succession, there did not appear to have been a banquet on Friday evening. About 300 persons registered for the meeting, including 185 members. A total of 43 contributed papers was shown on the program.

The thirty-seventh annual meeting was held on March 14 and 15, 1958, at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. The major invited addresses were given by F.A. Ficken of the University of Tennessee and by Trevor Evans of Emory University. The banquet cost rose to $2.50. There were 219 persons registered at the meeting, including 139 members. A total of 35 contributed papers was shown on the program. A display was made of 63 mathematics books published by members of the Section, as had been done some twenty years earlier.

The thirty-eighth annual meeting was held at East Tennessee State College in Johnson City, Tennessee, on March 20 and 21, 1959. The invited speaker was once again W.S. Snyder of the University of Tennessee, who spoke on ``Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Some of the Mathematical Problems They Raise'' at the Friday evening banquet. There were 210 persons registered at the meeting, including 140 members. A total of 45 contributed papers was shown on the program.