William McWorter

Early Life

Born July 15th, 1939, the Cleveland, Ohio native Dr.William McWorter attended both elementary school and high school in Cleveland. Dr.McWorter graduated from Glenville Highschool in 1951 before going off to pursue his bachelor’s degree at The Ohio State University

Time of Study at Ohio State

Though Dr.McWorter would eventually be known for his considerable contributions to the study of Fractals, throughout his undergraduate time at Ohio State as a student, he struggled with his mathematical courseload, finishing with a 2.1 GPA by the time he graduated to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1958. After pushing his way into getting accepted into graduate school at Ohio State, Dr.McWorter began to excel throughout the rest of his higher learning and education as he then earned his master’s degree in 1959, published 3 papers, and earned his Ph.D. in 1963

Professional Life

After graduation, Dr. McWorter received over 24 job offers, which he believed was due to affirmative action, but decided to accept an offer as
an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia because it was known for bringing in World Famous faculty in Dr.McWorter’s field of passion, Group Theory.

Upon diving deeper into the world of fractals, Dr. McWorter decided to return to Ohio State as an Associate Professor where he would continue to develop theories such as the geometric group theory and the fractal theory while teaching elementary level courses. Dr.Mcworter published 16 research articles and had numerous fractals named after him
by the time he officially retired from Ohio State in 1993.

Impact

Though Dr.McWorter made great contributions in the field of mathematics with his creation of theories, papers, and openness for masterfully mend bending discussions, Dr.McWorter helped set an example for people of color to overcome adversity throughout their educational journeys.

As McWorter once stated, “ Blacks must realize that we cannot succeed without hard work and dedication, affirmative action or not”. Furthering this effort, during his time as an Associate Professor at Ohio State he indirectly became an inspiration for other students and faculty in the field of fractals. As one of his colleagues stated, “I considered [he] and Dr. Edgar who worked [with] him as my fractal mentors, although I have never met either of them...He was a master of programmed sequential path fractals and freely gave and taught others in a selfless manner. He was an example of all
that was good in the fractal culture”.

Dr.Mcworter made an attempt to not only change the ways to approach complex problems in topics such as Linear Algebra but he also aided in fixing issues on Ohio State’s campus during the racially intensified time period of the 1960s. Dr.McWorter played a role in petitioning for student organizations to be able to avoid any disruption based on race or inequality when it comes to bringing guest speakers on campus.

Events such as this one helped pave the way for the Black Student movement and the hundreds of Black student organizations that have impacted the lives of Black Students on Ohio State’s campus today. Dr. McWorter's mathematical stride and determination to stand strong against the racial inequalities that developed on campus and even in the earlier aspects of his career helped mold him into the impact maker he is known as today which is why his story needs to continue to be shared.