History of the Linn Smith Prize
Larned Linn Smith (known as Linn Smith) was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 17, 1899, to Effie and Elias E. Smith. He graduated from Sioux City High School in June, 1916, and was accepted to Grinnell College, which he attended from 1916 to 1920.
At Grinnell, Linn Smith was a scholarship holder and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a major in mathematics and a minor in physics. Debate was a strong interest of his both at Grinnell and in high school. At Grinnell, he was Secretary of the Debating Union and tied for second in the Hill Contest in Extemporaneous Speaking. He was also on the staff of the 1920 Cyclone (Grinnell College's yearbook) and a sergeant in Grinnell College's Student's Army Training Corps. (The photo above shows him in his military uniform.)
Particularly remarkable is the fact that Linn Smith published a mathematics paper while still an undergraduate. "A Construction of the Regular Polygon of Seventeen Sides" appeared in the July-September, 1920, issue of the American Mathematical Monthly (volume 27, pages 322-323). (The figure below is taken from this article.)
After Grinnell, Linn Smith went to Harvard University on a Charles Elliott Perkins scholarship for graduate study in mathematics. However, he completed only one year of graduate study; his untimely death on August 9, 1921, cut short a promising career. He was spending the summer of 1921 in Peterboro, New Hampshire, watching over the two young sons on Mr. and Mrs. Edward Burling. Edward Burling Jr. recalls him as "an unusually attractive young man." He also remembers the day: "Linn was swimming around the boat ... Suddenly I noticed that Linn was no longer in sight. ... I called out in terror." The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, not drowning. A sister, Genevieve (Mrs. Radford Dove), recalls "those hot August days" at the time of their brother's "enormous funeral and lines of flower cars, reporters, etc."
The Linn Smith prize for Excellence in Mathematics was first awarded in 1924, although the original name of the award was the "Linn Smith Scholarship for Excellency in Mathematical Study." College records indicate that the prize was established by an anonymous gift of $1000, but Edward Burling Jr. remembers his father making the gift: "Dad would whip off another anonymous gift to Grinnell at the drop of a hat." A much larger contribution from Mr. Burling went for Burling Library.
Recipients of the Linn Smith Prize
Notes: The award was called a scholarship, not a prize, until 1947. Before the change, the scholarship was announced in the graduation program and applied in the following year, which was normally the student's senior year. For many years after the change, the award continued to be announced before the recipient's senior year, a practice that ended in 1961. So the fact that a year of graduation is not indicated from 1961 on simply means that all these recipients were awarded the prize at the time of their graduation. A question mark after a student's name indicates that the record of the award that year may be unreliable.
- 2012: Boanne Rosemary MacGregor
- 2011: Benjamin Carl Greenberg
- 2010: Sam Calisch and Rob Zyskowski
- 2009: Henry Thomas Reich, Scott Steven Slinker, and Buchan Xue
- 2008: William Nelson Boney, Katrina Michelle Honigs, and Rolf William Hoyer
- 2007: Stephanie Daniel Fried and Norman Lewis Perlmutter
- 2006: Douglas Christopher Babcock
- 2005: Christine Constance Bormann Oehlert and Zelealem Belaineh Yilma
- 2004: Matthew L. Bond, Ananta Nath Tiwari, and Jonathan L. Wellons
- 2003: Logan M. Axon, Ming Gu, and Rajendra Jarga Magar
- 2002: Jared R. Corduan and Emily Laura Resseger
- 2001: Oleksiy Sergiyov Andriychenko, Rachel Marie Heck, Dmitry Eugenievich Krivin, and Dolph James Robb
- 2000: Wei Zhao
- 1999: Catherine M. Williams
- 1998: Rebecca A. Schuller
- 1997: Chelsea Elisabeth Smock
- 1996: Karen T. Ball
- 1995: Jennifer D. Wagner
- 1994: Stephen T. Ahearn, James A. Mills, and Vikram Subramaniam
- 1993: Siddhartha Agarwal, Christopher A. Jepsen, and Kristopher R. Tapp
- 1992: Kristine L. Hauser
- 1991: Nathan W. Root
- 1990: Julia A. Janik
- 1989: Apryl A. Henry and Peter Gavin LaRose
- 1988: John Charles Roth and Wanda B. Upole
- 1987: Albert J. Goodman
- 1986: Kevin M. Manbeck
- 1985: Brenda L. Johnston
- 1984: Janet Lynn Wilson
- 1983: Kevin J. Lang and Matthew D. Smith
- 1982: David A. Strickler
- 1981: David M. Perkinson
- 1980: Nathaniel Solomon Borenstein and Terry M. Grant
- 1979: Carolyn B. Mow and Genevieve B. Orr
- 1978: Guy T. Blaylock and Carl John Oppedahl
- 1977: Dale E. Worley
- 1976: Paul E. Kennedy
- 1975: Mark S. Ashbaugh and James P. Fernow
- 1974: Robert S. Rumley
- 1973: Jay Roger Southard
- 1972: (no award)
- 1971: Susan Carol Seeder
- 1970: Daniel Eugene Frohardt
- 1969: Clifford Arnold Frohlich and Roy Wyatt Pengra
- 1968: Robert Mandels Katz and Paul Richard Tice
- 1967: Edward Fred Schmeichel
- 1966: Mary Beth Bridgham
- 1965: (no award)
- 1964: James Edward Clapp and David Bruce Patterson
- 1963: Mary Karen Hillix
- 1962: David Alexander McBlain
- 1961: Richard Royal Fisher and Phyllis Noreen Rogers
- 1960: David Manley 1961
- 1959: Bruce Thomas 1960
- 1958: Ellen B. Blaser 1959 and David G. Marker 1959
- 1957: Richard Holmes 1958
- 1956: John Chase 1957 and George Sullivan 1957
- 1955: Samuel Im 1957
- 1954: Charles Cook 1956
- 1953: William Hamilton 1955 and George Simon 1955
- 1952: David Bowersox 1953
- 1951: Kathryn Jantzen 1952
- 1950: Larry Dutton 1951 and Alex Elwyn 1951
- 1949: Jack Sheriff 1950
- 1948: Austin Robert Brown, Jr. 1949
- 1947: Scott Crom 1948
- 1946: Lee Maria Kleiss 1947 (?) and Margaret Ruth Tergillus 1947 (?)
- 1945: Marilyn Marie Herselius 1947
- 1944: Gerry Ross 1945
- 1943: Donald Sterling Noyce 1944
- 1942: Wilma Lois Schallau 1943
- 1941: Charles Philip Plum 1942
- 1940: Carolyn Crandall 1941
- 1939: George Julius Finck 1940
- 1938: Paul M. Beck 1939 and Frederick Albert Manny 1939
- 1937: Fred Christopher Eisen 1938
- 1936: Robertson Gannaway 1937 and Berger Graves 1937
- 1935: Randolph Carlson 1936
- 1934: Joseph Conard 1935
- 1933: Ora Lucy Wheeler 1934
- 1932: Charles Edwin Bures 1933
- 1931: David Merrill Bridgham 1932
- 1930: Carroll Martin Crownsea 1931
- 1929: Donald Prentiss Jones 1930 and John Edward Perry 1930
- 1928: Priscilla Lieberknecht 1929
- 1927: Everett Roy Tarvin 1927 (?)
- 1926: Everett Roy Tarvin 1927
- 1925: Harriet Allen 1926
- 1924: John Stehn 1925
