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Albert Emerson Hurd died on Oct. 28, 2009, in Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital after a long battle with cancer. He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma 17 years ago, and his doctors did not expect him to survive long. As usual, Al had his own ideas: he found a new doctor who was open to his pursuing alternative medicine along with Western. Much of the alternative medicine he sought out then is now increasingly mainstream.
Al was born in Montréal on Oct. 22, 1931, and he grew up in the Eastern Townships of Anglo Quebec. He received his PhD from Stanford and held positions at MIT and UCLA before coming to UVic. While at UCLA, he became interested in the relatively new area of non-standard analysis and this remained his research “religion” for his academic career.
Al was also a political and social activist his entire life. In the early 1960s he joined the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and during the Vietnam war became active within academia, joining a group of anti-war mathematicians, attempting to persuade scientists to cease doing war-related research. After moving to Victoria, he joined the Amour de Cosmos Food Coop, and he helped bring Open Space into being, unique in its hosting of alternative music, dance and art. In the last part of his life, he became an avid gardener and turned his modest Fairfield yard into a gardener's paradise.
Al is survived by his second wife, Louise Young Hurd, whose long marriage brought him enormous joy, and by children from his first marriage.
Al touched many people in his lifetime, planting seeds of new ideas, challenging received opinions, railing against complacency but encouraging by example to live a good and fulfilling life. He will be sorely missed.
Submitted by Drs. Bob Meirs (retired), Reinhard Illner and Ian Putnam of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
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