I have often thought of Howard in the more than 50 years since I last saw Howard. We were classmates at Jefferson Elementary School in New Rochelle and became good friends when we found out we were born on the same day, in the same place as it must have been destiny.

I'll always remember him for his desire to be a composer, and was saddened when he told me he was moving to the city where his parents had bought a theater.

Today I thought of him once again and with the power of Google I entered his name, and there was a photo of a face I hadn't seen in more than half a century but knew immediately it was he.

I am so sorry for his family and myself to see it was in his obituary. I was so looking to picking up where we left off.

Lawrence, take care. Daniel

I think I attended Downtown community School with him in the Village.   My condolences to the family.

There were not many occasions for scientists and humanities scholars to get to know each other on the Yeshiva faculty. Tom was one of the few scientists I did know  and I was very lucky. We served on at least one committee together and often chatted in the hall when we encountered each other. He was a wonderful colleague  smart, kind, funny, quirky, and always unwilling to put up with the hot air that accompanies so much academic business. I can remember that at one point he was  I think sincerely  contemplating a project that would have our students build a concrete boat. It seemed totally off the wall, but, then again, maybe it wasn't. That was Tom. He was totally unique. An independent mind  and an enjoyable one. He will be missed.

Thomas was a great friend to me for 40 years and to lose him is indescribable. May God's love and protection fall like sunshine on Thomas's loved ones, today and forever.

One of the most appreciated aspects of my having served as Dean of Yeshiva College for six years has been the opportunity for meaningful interactions with so many faculty members and having  had unique  opportunities to get to know so many of my colleagues in diverse fields of scholarship.  

While unfortunately I cannot attest to the brilliance of Tom's mathematical mind, I can well attest to the expanse of his humanity and the depth of his soul.  Tom's passionate concern for, and loyalty to, his family, his faculty and colleagues, his students and to his profession and school were apparent to all who came in contact with him. He was a humble man of gentle nature who also possessed a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a healthy dose of realism.  Who could forget Tom's lengthy and artfully crafted emails which at times could drive a Dean to distraction! Throughout our interactions, it was apparent that his core was rooted in honesty, mutual respect and social equity and that he lived his life in accordance with his strong beliefs.  In his courses in mathematics and astronomy and in his informal discourse with others, he conveyed his contagious sense of awe and excitement about mathematics and the universe to his students and colleagues.  But he was also a humanistic thinker whose interests and passions extended well beyond the realm of the pure sciences.  We all appreciated his contributions to the broader liberal arts curriculum of the College. 

Our deep sense of professional and personal  loss at Yeshiva in some small way allows us to fathom the magnified intensity of the profound loss to his beloved wife, cherished children and dear family. Please accept our heartfelt sympathy and sincere condolences.  We pray that you will find the strength to deal with your loss and hopefully to find a degree of solace in cherished memories and in the knowledge that Tom will be warmly remembered in the hearts of his colleagues and generations of students. 

Barry L. Eichler

I had the privilege of working with Dr. Otway at Stern College for several years.  For a couple of years we had our offices next to each other and I looked forward to the days that he was on our campus.
Dr. Otway was always a pleasure to work with. He was dedicated to Yeshiva University, committed and available to our students, always willing to step up to help when we needed him, and always doing so with his pleasant, warm, humorous personality. 
His passing is a great loss to our university, our students and our Stern College team.
We will miss him.
I hope Dr. Otways's legacy will be a comfort to his family.

Miriam Schechter, Teaneck, NJ

Thomas was a great man. He did a lot of good to my family. He was a friend, a colleague, a research collaborator, a personal, career, and family counselor. He had a unique humanity. My family and I will miss him always.

Dr Thomas Otway, or Tom as I called him in our conversations, was a great mathematician and a wonderful human being, and he had understanding and insight of others. I will certainly miss my friend, and may he rest in peace.
              Donald Taylor-Bruce

I am very shocked and saddened to learn the passing of my great friend Tom. It gives me real pain to realize that Tom has left us.

We had always been in touch on many things and shared a lot of common interests over the years since early 1990. During 2008-2009 I worked at the math department of Yeshiva University where Tom was the chairman. To me, Tom was a person full of energy, intellectual power, passion for mathematics and its applications, and honesty. In summer 2009, we spent time together in China and we traveled to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xian, Beijing, and Kaifeng where Tom delivered a ten-hour series of lectures on mixed-type partial differential equations to the faculty and graduate students of Henan University. Many people benefited from his lectures and their follow-up discussions and have keenly remembered him as Professor Tom. Besides the subject of mixed-type equations, Tom's mathematical studies cover a wide range of topics including gauge field theories, the Born-Infeld geometric theory of electromagnetism, and nonlinear Hodge theory. Tom's teaching activities were also uniquely broad and spanned well beyond the traditional scope of mathematics. For example, he even taught courses on quantum mechanics and astronomy. In the last conversation we had in December 2015 he told me that he was seriously interested in Big Data and had given the subject a lot of study. His enthusiasm for science in general and mathematics in particular has been and will continue to be a source of inspiration for me.

Tom will be forever missed dearly.

Best wishes to Anne-Marie, James, and Kathleen. 

Yisong Yang (West Windsor, New Jersey)

I am deeply sorry and I can't express my feelings to Tom's family because I lack words. I loved Tom as the most brilliant and quick witty and generous person I've ever met. It is because of such brilliant warm and caring people like Tom I liked being a part of Yeshiva University. It is a terrible loss for me.

Prof. Otway was a generous and well rounded educator who offered the most thorough advice to innumerable students who met with him throughout the semester in person or via email. He helped us grasp the complex jargon of university and beyond in the simplest and more humorous way he could. I still have the car I won from answering the most homework questions during recitation. Yes, he gave me a car, just look at the picture!

Every lecture  was a performance and he the performer. With his intellect and lovable humanity, Dr Otway was able to inspire us, his students, with the energy of his own passions and successes, and to morph the most intimidating of equations into adorable characters of tremendous humor. 
We who were blessed to have him lecture to us twice a week will miss him dearly. We have lost an unforgettable Proffesor and a caring mentor. 
 
Our sympathies are with his family and friends as we feel our loss and know their's to be greater.

Dr. Otway - you taught us to apply adjectives to math like "rich", "beautiful", and "revealing". You were the funnest class to sit in, hands down. You taught us that there's no contradiction between brilliance and humility.

"Now I get to use colored chalk!" 
"And that, gentlemen, is what we call in mathematics the wrong answer."
"I mean hey, what do I know? I'm just a human being."

We miss you.

Never imagined a world without Thomas Otway! Loved him so much! We would travel up from Florida each summer to visit Thomas, AnneMarie, James and Kathleen. Always a memorable, relaxing, fun time! The whole family showed us the most hospitality. Nothing was too troublesome, as they showed us around Croton and the city. Last summer we camped at Croton 4 days and they took us to the city for an adventure of Chinatown, (we all bought straw hats and went out to eat), touring neighborhoods and to the World Trade Center Memorial. 
Never thought it would be the last time.
He adored his children, Kathleen and James. He loved and was devoted to his wife AnneMarie. 
My children, Louise and Bobby also loved their uncle very much. 
See you in heaven Thomas!
Love, Donna Palagano,sister-in-law.

Thank you Dr. Otway for being so helpful. I really enjoyed your humor.
May you rest in peace.

I was privileged to be in Professor Otway's Advanced Calculus class during the 2004-2005 school year. He was a great mathematician, and a wonderful teacher. He encouraged each students to be his or her best - even including their comments in the notes of the text book he was working on. Most importantly, he exhibited incredible patience ensuring that each student understood the complicated material which he was teaching. He will be greatly missed.

Prof Otway inspired so many students at Yeshiva University. I thank him for his professionalism and caring nature. As a father I am in his debt for the amazing worlds of knowledge he opened for my son.

I did not take Professor Otway's courses at Stern College, but I once needed his help to have an outside math course approved, and we emailed back and forth a few times. His emails were so respectful and kind, and were very reassuring at a time when I really needed his help. Even though I was not a student of his, Professor Otway was very patient with me and showed that he cared. I will not forget his kindness in my time of need.

The sudden news that Tom passed away shocked me. I lost a dear friend and respectful colleague.  Tom and I have been colleagues and friends for many years.  I worked at Yeshiva for two years from 2010-2012. Our research areas have the common intersection of mixed type partial differential equations. He sent me his research monograph The Dirichlet Problem for Elliptic-Hyperbolic Equations of Keldysh Type by Springer, Berlin (2012). He sent me, earlier this year, his new lecture notes Elliptic-Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations, A Mini-Course in Geometric and Quasilinear Methods by Springer (2015). I was about to invite him to come to Penn State to give talks in my seminar on Mixed Type Problems. Now that would not be possible, but will forever be remembered as a part of my fond memory of Tom as an excellent mathematician and a close peer. With these research achievements and others, Tom will live forever. In addition, Tom will be forever cherished in my mind as a great colleague in appreciation of my research and teaching as well as a respectful person. I recall that he came to my office sometime in Spring 2012 to deliver a copy of my teaching evaluation and praised it beyond my expectation.  He praised me as well for my commitment in the application to re-establish (in 2010) the Graduate Program at Yeshiva when I resigned my tenured position at Penn State in 2011. He supported me during my time at Yeshiva full-heartedly. Tom and I developed mutual trust and respect that I could not imagine be surpassed by anyone. I miss Tom and wish he rest in peace. May God bless Mrs. Otway and family members in this time of sorrow.

Funny, warm, serious, dedicated, smart, caring: I will take the best side of humanity that he showed me and try to live to his example. Rest in peace, Dr. Otway.

Professor Otway was a wonderful teacher. He had the perfect blend of brilliance, pragmatism, and kindness that made him the great teacher and individual he was.

Prof. Otway was such a gentleman, ready to help and quick in response. I truly enjoyed the days under his supervision. May his soul rest in peace.

My sister picked a wonderful man in Thomas.  He was kind, patient, humble, funny, gracious(sp), extremely smart and a pleasure to be around.  His children and my sister were blessed to have him and will miss him.  Bob Palagano

I was a great fan of Tom. He was full of honest, good advice, and was an excellent roll model as a teacher and a peer. I was honored to have him as a friend here at Y.U.

Ed Berliner

AVIS DE DÉCÈS

Thomas Howard Otway PHD

14 octobre 1953 – 5 avril 2016

Edward F. Carter Funeral Home

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