In Memoriam Paul Catlin

 From BICA (17) 1996:

Paul Catlin, 1948—1995

On April 20, 1995, Paul Allen Catlin passed away in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 46, and the community of graph theory lost one of its best friends.

Paul Catlin was born on June 25, 1948 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He received his BA at Carnegie—Mellon University in 1970, and then went to The Ohio State University, where he earned his MS in 1973 and PhD in 1976, studying under Prof. Neil Robertson. Ile accepted a as an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University upon graduation and remained there for the rest of his life. Paul was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1981 and to full professor in 1990.

He was a very effective advisor, with success that is shown in the list of his graduate students. These were I-long-Jian Lai (MS in 1985 and PhD in 1988), Zhi-Hong Chen (PhD in 1991), X. Y. su (PhD in 1994), Ciping Chen (nearing completion of his PhD), and M. Bayen (PhD dissertation in progress). In addition, he had as masters students Wen-Jun Wu (MS in 1985), Ile Li (MS in 1986), and Jewel Smith (MS in 1993).

At the time of his death, Paul had 49 papers in print or accepted, and others in various stages of production. These latter papers are being completed and shepherded through the publication process by his friends.

A more complete biography of Paul Catlin and a complete list of his papers will be included in the issue of Discrete Mathematics resulting from the "Paul Catlin Memorial Workshop on Graph Minors and Eulerian Sub graphs" to be held on June 1 and 2, 1996, at Western Michigan University, in conjunction with the Eighth Quadrennial International Conference on Graph Theory, Combinatorics, Algorithms, and Applications being held there.