Person:William Hutcherson (4)

  Featured Page: Week of 10 June 2019

About William Robert Hutcherson

William Robert Hutcherson was born in Glasgow, Kentucky on December 20, 1898 .  He was the middle of 7 children where there were 2 girls and 5 boys.  They all revered their parents and looked up to them with the utmost love and respect.    “Will”, as his mother called him, was blessed with a good logical mind and an easy going temperament and thus became known by many as the “peacemaker” of the family.  Their life was filled with hard work, lots of fun and the normal “horseplay” between energetic and rambunctious siblings…but when the Father and Mother wanted their attention they all stepped lively to their tune!     Certainly all of the Hutcherson boys were known for their dry wit and streak of “stubbornness.”  However, Sally May, his sweet wife of 58 years, often proudly stated that her Will was the least stubborn of them all…that is until his lower lip would protrude…and then all bets were off.   William Robert graduated from the Glasgow High School in January 1918 and then enrolled in Civil Engineering in 1919 at the University of Kentucky .  While there he majored in Mathematics and Physics and got his B.S. and M.A. degrees and later received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cornell in June 1931.   While at UK he was in the Reserved Officer’s Training Corps and spent a summer training at Plattsburgh Army Base in New York .  In September of 1921, he walked into his Economics class a little late…decked out in his spiffy ROTC uniform and attracting lots of attention…and had to sit in the back of the room.  Someone special happened to notice him and when he laid eyes on that pretty young thing by the name of Sally May Grainger…it was a match made in heaven. 

William Robert served as the Head of the Mathematics department for Berea College for 20 years before transferring in 1948 to teach for one year at the Northwestern State University in Louisiana before moving to the University of Florida in 1949 where he eventually became Professor Emeritus in 1970.  His specialty was Non-Euclidean Geometry and he published a total of 23 research papers while there and had 8 graduate students receive their PhD’s under him.   Perhaps he can best be described in his daily dairies which he kept throughout his life and began in 1918.  They are a testament to his well established priorities, first was his constant witness to his faith; then came his commitment to his family; and finally the satisfaction he achieved from his career of teaching.  He loved his simple life of teaching, research and coming home to his “Queen” and children and getting to “play” on his “mini-farm.”    That old saying, “You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy” was definitely true for him.  He loved to putter around in the garden and tend to his farm animals, usually a cow, chickens, dog, goat, and sometimes a pig or two.  This was far more fun to him than playing golf or hitting a silly little yellow ball around the court.  They lived for many wonderful years on their Shangrila called “Math Acres”, just outside Gainesville , which often became a playland haven for their 10 grandchildren.   He also relished being a Lay Minister and spoke at countless churches throughout the state of Florida and had the reputation that whenever a pastor was in need, “just call Dr. Hutcherson.” [Quoted from 2005 Hutcherson Reunion Information]

Letters from 1982, transcribed by Sarah Wing:

  Dear Loved Ones:  This is 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 17, 1982 on front porch of my home in Delray Beach, Fla. 33444.  Often we use the 9 N.W. 17th Street in order not to run into somebody elses house! Ha!  The swing I am in while writing seems perfectly contented.  You know I have been used to a porch swing at the first house Sally designed on Peach Bloom Hill at Berea in 1934.  Later also on porch at 1120 N.E. 3rd St. in Gainesville, Fla.  And at Math Acres where Sally designed a large house up on a hill nine miles from U. of Fla. campus in four spells of building (three additions).  I even studied in it there.  So here at Delray, why not use a swing?
                      Last night I talked by phone with Aunt Ambie, whom we saw at the supper party last Tuesday at John Kenneth's home.  Also called Aunt Lyda, where we spent three nights.  Later, I called Cy, in Marietta, Ga.  He and Louise felt better after their three week's rest at Ormand Beach, Fla. where they used her brother's (Ward Oates) condominium.  She can walk fairly well now with her new $12,000 knee.  Insurance cared for most of it, says Cy.  Did not call Brydon Gainger (Sally's only living brother; only one sister, Sue, living at Rogers, Ark. with both legs off, near one of her three sons).  He and Rosa Lee left for a vacation in Maine, three days after we visited with them.  I spent three nights with them while Sarah and Morgan drove ten miles away back to Richmond to be with Morgan's medical Classmate Dr. Jim Salter.  And the second night they were there, the kitchen caught on fire, due to over heated skillet of meat, while the Wings were asleep upstairs.  In spite of smoke they got up and out;  Morgan did have to take some medicine for his breathing.  Knowing how Sally had so much breathing trouble, we were concerned about Morgan; but he handled it o.k. just as he has done so many problems in his past life.
                      We visited the Hutcherson Grave Yard at Park, Ky. where first battle of Civil War in Ky. was fought in October, 1961.  Sarah wrote down the data from the dismantled grave stones.  My Grandfather Cyrus Booker Hutcherson was 83, passing away in 1907.  I remember him sitting in a rocking chair facin g (I make a few mistakes in writing in order to keep you awake) the fireplace that my one year old father was put in, for safety, during that battle.  (No fire in fireplace at that time of the year).  Also visited the Glasgow cemetery the same morning, seeing my parents' grave stone, and that of sister, Fannie Lou, and of her three year old Margery Lyon Callis, who died in 1924, the year Sally and I married.  I think my Grandmother Hutcherson (whom I never saw) was 67, my mother was 82 (in 1942), and my father was 86 (in 1946).  This morning I noticed that my dear brother, Kenneth, passed away on Mch. 23, 1981, my sweet sister, Fannie Lou, on Dec. 19, 1981, my darling wife, Sally May, on May 5, 1982, and my dear brother, Bernard, on Aug. 18, 1982. [Note: Paw Paw must have made a mistake about Uncle Bernard's year of death.  He probably meant to say 1981, instead of 1982, since the date of this letter is Aug. 17, 1982.]  My sweet sister, Betsy, passed away in Dec. 1968, as I remember, with cancer.  We ate dinner (noon day) with Quin and Connie in Danville on Sat., en route to Glasgow, and he told me of the suffering his fine father, Ed Bailey, endured before his death.  Of course, Kenneth's dear wife, Faith, passed away before he did.  Not sure of the dates of the last two loved ones.
                       Can you believe I have been swinging for over an hour and still have not said very much?  I take my hat off to Martha Lou and all the fast typists who use ten fingers instead of over working one poor finger as I am doing.  But I have one thing to brag about; I beat them in making more mistake than they do!     LATER.  Today is Sat.Aug.18,1982 about 9:30 a.m. in (of course) the inviting porch swing.  Took my usual 7:15 a.m. walk to Sarah's and back.  Read daily paper she gave me (in the swing).  And now to the Ky. visit.  On Aug. 8, 1982 we arrived by plane in Lexington where Ann Chambers Alcorn met us, and Sarah and Morgan rented a Buick car, which took us on our Berea, Danville, Glasgow, Louisville week's trip and visit.  At the noon day meal out in race horse country at a U.of Ky. Club House, Mattie Hodges Jones (Sally's roommate at Patterson Hall during her senior year, and before, at U.of Ky.) joined all of us.  Later, I rode with Mattie to her home in east Lexington, where we all had a pleasant visit until we left about 3:30 p.m. to drive on I-75 to Berea, where I spent three nights, with Brydon and Rosa Lee.  One morning Brydon and I took our walk to the Hutchins Library, where I had a ten minute visit with Emeritus President Francis Hutchins.  He spoke of being glad he had a chance to talk with my son, W.R.H.Jr., when he was at Union Church in Berea, some months ago. Prof. Gilbert Roberts (a former 1925 student, in College Algebra, of mine and Head of the Math Dep't for years) and wife,had me for a noon day meal, where Prof. Ted Wright and wife (both former students of mine and in the same class) were present.  Brydon and Rosa Lee could not do enough for us, it seemed.  I am spoiled in Berea as well as in Delray Beach!
                      In Berea, we ate a noon meal at Boone Tavern with Sally's close friend and next door neighbor for years, Mrs. Ethel Graham.  And in Louisville, on Wed. Aug. 15th, before we caught the 3:45 p.m. plane for Palm Beach, Fla. we ate a noon meal with Mrs. Graham's daughter, Mrs. Genevieve Gleis.  Sarah and she were almost baby playmates; thereafter, they were almost sisters.  Judge Stanley Powell and wife had me for an evening meal, and he had me for one at Boone Tavern the night before.  He was a Univ. of Ky. friend of mine, and he has been almost like a brother to me thru the years.  Sally and I visited him and his wife in Phoenix, Ariz. in 1965, as we came back from Sarah's Xmas gathering in Berkeley, Cal.  Also, as we went to Japan in 1970, we visited them, there.  At Berea, we had a visit with Mrs. Nell Noll, a Peach Bloom Hill neighbor for over 20 years.  Her husband was Head of Physics Dept while I was head of Math Dep't, and we had so much in common.  And he was like a brother to me.  He was the cause of me teaching for Pa. State College Extension Dep't. during the summers of 1941 and 1942, at Lehighton and at Punxsutawney, Pa.  In Danville, Dr. Quin Bailey and Connie and cute Jennifer, had us for a noon meal on Sat. as we drove over smooth Ky. roads to Glasgow, my birthplace nearly 84 years ago.  Quin has a beautiful home on over a dozen acres.  Reminded me of his wonderful parents' home near Louisville, where Betsy and Ed had many family reunions for the Hutchersons.  We got to Glasgow Sat. night and staid until after noon day meal on Tues.  (Lyon Jr. and Norma were in charge).  On Sunday morning, Sarah drove my wonderful Brother Lyon (89 years young) and myself to Sunday School class that Lyon has been a member of for probably over sixty years.  I saw men that I had not seen for years.  And at the church service, we were joined by Lyda, Sarah and Morgan, Herb and Libby, Lyon, Jr. and Norma, John Kenneth and Amanda; afterward we all ate at the Holiday Inn.  That afternoon Norma had us up on the beautiful hill at their home, for a chat for an hour or so.  Looking out the windows we could see the cattle grazing in the valley and on the hills, where I lost plenty of sweat plowing corn, during my teen years.  I went off to college in Bowling Green, Ky. in early 1918, I remember.  Lyon and Lyda were so good to us, as usual.  Heavy rains on Monday kept fus from moving around very much.  Early on Tuesday, Lyon, Morgan and I were driven by Sarah to the Hutcherson Grave Yard, and later to the Glasgow Grave Yard.  We saw Miss Bessie Veluzat, who cooked and lived at Maple Hill for over five years.  She came there about 18 months before our sweet mother passed away and staid until our unusual wonderful father died in 1946.  We spent Tuesday night with John Kenneth and Amanda, and cute little Stephenie, where Aunt Ambie joined us for a fine meal, and conversation.  Of course Bernard was missed, just as my Sally was.  We thank all of you loved ones for making this week's trip such a memorable one, for me, and for my body guards, Dr. Morgan Wing and his sweet wife, Sarah, who is so much like her wonderful mother, who guarded me for nearly 58 years.  Some of you may not know that on Father's Day in 1982 I got a sweet greeting on which was written "This entitles you to a Ky. trip this summer".  My three children and families took care of me, and my usual U.S. currency did not seem to be worth anything, I found out.  I guess it was, maybe, Confederacy Money.Ha! Love to all.WRH,SR.
                      P.S.  It is now 12 noon, and I am getting hungry!  Yesterday a letter from Martha Jane Hutcherson of Versailes,Ky. suggested the possibility of a Hutcherson Reunion some time next year, in Barren County, I think.  Sarah also told me that Quin and Dr. Amanda Hutcherson also spoke of such a gathering.  Since this younger generation pulled off this recent Ky. trip for me, I guess I will not be surprised if such materialized in the future.  So Lyon and Cy, watch out! Ha! WRH.

August 1982:

Dear Loved Ones: This is a new experiment for me, a one-eyed man trying to sit in the front porch swing at 9 N.W. 17 Street, Delray Beach, Fla, 33444, telephone 305-272-6520, and tapping on a type writer. If you endorse such usage of time you can vote aye or yea. Ha! Sarah's house cleaner and Morgan's office cleaner, Zelma, is inside doing the washing and house cleaning for this home. Gene just came by (nearly 11 a.m.) and put drops in my right eye. He goes to a luncheon today with Lion's Club. Yesterday he came by and took me to the grocery, post office, etc. At the Publix grocery I got a 1.99 lunch plate yesterday and was only able to eat half of it at home. Other half is frozen and just waiting for me for another day. Last evening before supper time there were 3 cars parked in front of this house. First was bringing Sally Wing Wheeler and 13 year old Shannon and little Mickey Boy, about a half year old. Second car brought Sarah, who has not felt well for a day or so (some throat soreness, I think). Third car brought Martha and Gene. The latter are expecting from Tex. Marcia and family, driving all night last, and getting to Boca sometime tonight. Sharon and her family are also expected to be there before sun up tomorrow. Mike and Sally and Shannon just got back from Boston, last Sun., where a medical meeting was held for several days.And a week earlier, Morgan and Sarah, and Shannon, and Morgan's parents (who now live in Delray Beach, also) got back from the Knoxville World's Fair. Morgan, Sarah, and Shannon did spend 2 or 3 days with Sally's brother Brydon and Rosa Lee in Berea, during their trip. Just Brydon and sister Sue (in Rogers Ark. with her youngest son) are the only Grainger children left on earth, now. There were eleven children in Mother and Father Grainger's family. Two had passed away before I knew sweet Sally. For the last three or more mornings, I have been taking a twenty block walk before I eat my breakfast. Am much more sure of myself and I thank God for each blessing. Appetite is good and I sleep so well some nights that my wrist watch sleeps also, and misses an hour or so of keeping up with its duty! Was in the Shands Hospital in Gainesville for about a week having the tic operation by Dr. Rhoton, who is Florida's notable Mayo graduate in this field. By the way, his parents graduated from Berea back in early thirties, even tho I am not sure that I knew them. In this operation in trying to kill the parts of the trigeminal nerve that cause the pain, triggered by motion of the jaw, or wind hitting part of face, or some other trigger (and you have no control of the pain when trigger is pulled), Dr. Rhoton is guided by Xray activity, as the hot needle (heated by radio frequency waves) finds its way to burn the ganglion of the nerve giving pain; he says he got too close to a nerve that rolls the eye back to the left or right and up and down. He and his eye specialists all think this nerve will slowly grow back, and in six months I may have normal use of the eye. If I lift the eye lid of this right eye, I can see alright, but can not move it along with that of the other eye. So, some of my many relatives down here drop in and put daily drops in this lazy right eye, which stays covered with non moving eye lid. So, God has richly blessed me even tho I miss my angel Sally. Am to go back to see Dr. Rhoton at 10:30 a.m. on Fri.Aug.6,1982,in Gainesville. LATER. Martha just drove up and we had a little lunch together, about noon, as I was typing part of the above letter. Is now after 5 p.m. and I just got thru talking with one of my Methodist friends in Gainesville who called me. Believe I am about to run out of paper space. Thanks Lyda for your kind letters and phone call. Sorry to hear that Ambie's sister died. We are never ready for those sad events. Glad Kenneth Rivers and wife are to be in Glasgow, today. Understand Bill and Beth Ury are to move to Warren, Ohio. Love to all.WRH.

5/23/83 Dear Beth and Family:

                               Thanks for your recent letter.  I talked by phone this a.m. with your Aunt Louise.  Cy was out for a walk.  He does plan to be at Asbury College for his graduation (55 years ago) celebration.  So it will almost be a Hutcherson reunion there, it seems.  Certainly, it is a Ury celebration, with two of your children graduating.  We are all proud of you each.  And I am sure your Aunt Sally would approve of me sending the little enclosed check as graduation gift for the two involved.  They know how to divide by two.  Ha!
                               Sarah and her brother-in-law, Freddie Wing (is an English professor in Missouri) got back from Gainesville yesterday.  Morgan hopes to have his kidney transplant on June 14, 1983, I understand.  His youngest son, Robert, was in Gainesville last week for many tests in the Shands Hospital there.  Sarah was telling me this a.m. that she could almost count fifteen of her relatives planning to be at Hutcherson Reunion on Aug 8 and 9.  Morgan even hopes he can come!
                                Will be appropriate to have picture taken of the Hutcherson relatives together.  And it would be nice if our preachers (K. Rivers, Bill Ury Sr. and Jr., Harold Brooks, Mark Nysewander, and Uncle Cy) could have us together for season of prayer and witness at some time.  I remember how my mother and father would have the visiting relatives in the parlor at Maple Hill for such a session of love, for each other and for our Heavenly Father.  Of course, all our dear preacher relatives will not likely be there.  And many other relatives will not likely be present.  If all were together at the same time, it could make a nice congregation for a small church.
                                 I have some notes before me, obtained from an old family bible we had in Gainesville.  I remember my father telling me that Wm Hutcherson married Judith Nelson.  The notes give the date of Dec. 1, 1821.  Wm was born Dec.7, 1797. 

Maybe Cyrus B. Hutcherson (my grandfather) was the son of Wm. My father's brother, Wm Garnett Hutcherson was born Nov. 25, 1851 (lived 83 years). Aunt Mary Lizzie Hutcherson was born Nov. 26, 1854. My father was born in Oct. 1860. His youngest sister Lula was missionary in Cuba and S. America all her life. Only Uncle Wm Garnett had children (in addition to my father). They were Cousin Booker and Cousin Less. The latter we all knew well. Neither she nor Booker had children, so far as I know. So this Hutcherson tribe from C.B. Hutcherson (born Apr. 19, 1824 and lived 83 years). I remember playing near him in a rocking chair in old Civil War home. I was 8 or 9 years old. Sorry I have mixed this letter up with some non-understandable data. Uncle Lyon could clear up some of the above, I guess. Thanks for your flower drawing on your letter. I just guess you did it. Love to all,

                                                                   Uncle Will

UKY Board of Trustees Minutes, 31 May 1924

Cornell Alumni News, 3 Oct. 1935

Hutcherson Family, 1900 Census

Cornell Dissertation, 1931

Bio from Dissertation

Cover of 1917 Gun Manual

Inscription in Gun Manual

William Hutcherson and Sallie Grainger

Dec 7 1941 letter from WRH

May 1968 Letter from WRH

1970 letter from WRH - missing first few lines

March 1970 letter from WRH

1969 letter from WRH

August 1969 letter from WRH

March 1969 letter from WRH

December 1968 letter from WRH

November 1968 letter from WRH

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Cornell Alumni News, 3 Oct. 1935
   Vol. 38, #2, p. 14.

   '31 PhD—William Robert Hutcherson
   is head of the department and professor of
   mathematics at Berea College, Berea,
   Ky. He is married and has three small
   children.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Minutes of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, 31 May 1924, in University of Kentucky.

   http://exploreuk.uky.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ukbot;cc=ukbot;&idno=1924-08-may31&view=toc

3. ↑ United States Census, 1920, William Robert Hutcherson, in FamilySearch.org.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 United States Census, 1910, William Hutchinson [sic], in FamilySearch.org.
5. ↑ United States Census, 1900, William Hutcherson, in FamilySearch.org.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Statements from living relatives.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9} Family Records.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7} Hutcherson, William Robert. Maps of Certain Cyclic Involutions on Two Dimensional Carriers. 1931.

   The writer was born at Glasgow, Kentucky, December 20, 1898. Graduating from the Glasgow High School in 1919 [sic; a final 8 is written in pencil], he studied one year at the Western Kentucky State Normal School and then received the A.B. degree from University of Kentucky in 1922, and M.A. in Mathematics in 1924. After two years as Head of the Department of Mathematics in the Junior High School at Berea, Kentucky, he became Associate Professor of Mathematics and Head of the Department. He studied four summer quarters at the University of Chicago, and is now a Fellow in Mathematics at Cornell University.
   He married Sally May Grainger in 1924. They have two children, Sarah Ann, 3, and Martha Lou, one.

9. ↑ ^9.0 9.1 United States Census, 1930, William R Hutcheson, in FamilySearch.org.