Arthur "Artie" Lewis Holshouser

He is survived by his sisters, Leota Holshouser Shaw and Carolyn Holshouser Barfield; nieces, Tammy Shaw Williams and Ashley Carolyn Bowers; nephews, Ethan Thomas Holshouser and Jesse Thomas Holshouser; and great-nephew Leo Thomas Holshouser. In addition to his parents, Artie was preceded in death by his brother, Thomas Edward Holshouser; and his nephew, Robert Hugh Shaw, Jr.

Artie was born on May 18,1942, the eldest of four children, to Leo Columbus and Wilma Deese Holshouser. As a youth, Artie enjoyed playing baseball and participating in activities sponsored by the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the Royal Ambassadors program for boys at Calvary Baptist Church. A bright and inquisitive student, he was particularly interested in the sciences, and frequently entered projects in the yearly Science Fair held by the school system. One of his favorite gifts as a boy was a chemistry set that he received for Christmas. He would carefully set it up on the dining room table and proceed to conduct experiments, much to the chagrin of his mother. When Artie was in the ninth grade, he taught himself calculus, and began to develop a lifelong, endless fascination with mathematics.

Artie graduated as salutatorian from West Mecklenburg high school in 1960, and enrolled at Yale University. After a year, Artie returned to Charlotte; from 1970-1973 he continued to read mathematics on his own. He met Ben Klein, a Davidson College mathematics professor, in the early 1970s. About 10 years later, Dr. Klein introduced Artie to Harold Reiter, mathematics professor at UNC-Charlotte. For the next 40 years the 3 scholars discussed new problems, bounced ideas off one another, and wrote research papers together. The results include more than 40 publications, including a few that have received numerous citations. The work includes articles on combinatorial games, mathematical tournaments, groups of polynomials, magic polygrams and polygons, and various topics in number theory, recreational mathematics, and graph theory.

Dr. Reiter recalls, "Arthur Holshouser was a mathematician. His enthusiasm and energy for attacking hard problems is legendary. Thinking back about my association with Arthur, the most impressive thing is his ability to focus for long lengths of time on hard problems. In the early days of our relationship, he would walk for several hours each day thinking about the problems we had discussed the day before. And inevitably he would make some progress.

Although Arthur was generally quiet and introspective, when it came to discussing mathematical ideas, Arthur was always quite willing. He talked at evening meetings of the Charlotte Math Teachers Circle on numerous occasions. His talks were thoughtful and enjoyed."

In his bio graphic profile, Artie wrote "One key idea in my own research is the realization that mathematics is bigger than I am. This led to the idea that if I ever reached an end to the work, then all I need to do is keep searching, because I can never reach the end of mathematics. This basic idea can be used to create mathematics for infinity."

A graveside service to honor Artie will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 8, at Forest Lawn West Cemetery, located at 4601 Freedom Drive, Charlotte, NC 28208.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Pi Mu Epsilon, an organization that is dedicated to the promotion of mathematics and recognition of students who successfully pursue mathematical understanding.

Gifts to PME can be made by check, payable to Pi Mu Epsilon.

Mailing Address:

Frank Patane

Math & CS Dept.

Samford University

800 Lakeshore Dr.

Homewood, AL 35229

You may also use the PayPal link below to donate to PME’s account on behalf of Arthur Holshouser:

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/BDALY5BWBTMPL

Learn more about Pi Mu Epsilon at https://pme-math.org/