May 21, 2018
Dear Members of our Campus Community,
I am saddened to share with you the news that Professor Emeritus Adil M. Yaqub passed away on May 14, 2018. He was one of the longest serving professors in the UC system, joining our faculty in 1960, after five years at Purdue, and retiring last year after 56 years of exemplary research and teaching contributions in our Department of Mathematics.
Born in 1929 in Palestine, he attended high school in Jerusalem and studied mathematics at UC Berkeley, where he met his future wife, Nancy Shiddell. Nancy taught Spanish at UC Santa Barbara for over two decades, and later worked as a research attorney for the appellate court in Ventura. They raised their two children, Charles and Hanan, in Santa Barbara. Adil and Nancy were married for 60 years, until her passing in 2011.
Professor Yaqub was a greatly admired colleague and distinguished professorand mentor, who made countless contributions to our campus and to the profession. His devotion to our Academic Senate and shared governance was extraordinary and memorable. Over the years, he served as department chair, and as chair of the Southern California Section of the Mathematical Association of America. His areas of specialization included Ring Theory and Universal Algebras; he authored scores of research articles in leading mathematical journals. Among his books is Elementary Linear Algebra with Applications, written with Hal Moore. He was a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.
In 2010, I had the honor of recognizing Professor Yaqub on the Commencement platform for his 50-year milestone as our esteemed faculty colleague. At the time, I noted that his students had started a Facebook page called “Adil Yaqub Is My Hero,” with posted comments such as “A radiant person and a brilliant mind – you can’t help but leave his class feeling happier than when you went in” and “He’s Joe Cool.”
Recently, our Mathematics department honored him with a named scholarship for undergraduate students in Mathematics, the “Adil Yaqub Is My Hero” scholarship. Alumni, faculty, and staff all generously contributed to this scholarship, celebrating his remarkable 55 years of service at that time.
Professor Yaqub was a great inspiration to students and colleagues alike, and he will be missed. We extend our deepest condolences to his family. Our campus flag will be lowered on May 24 in his memory. His memorial service will be held at noon today, May 21, at Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapel in Santa Barbara.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor
Search Advisory Committee for Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education
Aaron Ettenberg, Chair; Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Gerardo Aldana, Professor and Chair, Chicana/o Studies
Glenn Beltz, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of
Engineering; Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Henning Bohn, Chair, Academic Senate; Professor, Economics
Michael Brown, Dean, University Extension (until September 2017); Professor,
Education
Niki Elyasi, Associated Students Representative
Kathy Foltz, Interim Dean, College of Creative Studies; Associate Professor,
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Alan Liu, Professor, English
Stephan Miescher, Chair, Undergraduate Council of Academic Senate;
Associate Professor, History
Lisa Przekop, Director of Admissions
Tricia Rascon, Director, Orientation Programs; Staff representative
Megan Valentine, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ex Officio:
Ricardo Alcaíno, Director, Equal Opportunity and Discrimination Prevention