Thyrsa Frazier Svager
Born: June 16, 1930; birth place:
Died July 23, 1999
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B.A. (1951) Mathematics
Antioch College; M.S. (1952) Mathematics Ohio State University
Ph.D.(1967) Mathematics
Ohio State University
thesis: On the Product of Absolutely Continuous Transformations
of Measure Spaces; Advisor: Paul Reichelderfer
As a senior (1950-51), Thyrsa Frazier obtained a very high score on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). At the time of her professional retirement in 1993, no other Antioch student had made a score as high as Frazier's score. Thyrsa Frazier Svager earned her B.A. in Mathematics from Antioch College. After earning her Master's degree in Mathematics from Ohio State University (1952), Thyrsa accepted a position as Statistical Analyst at the Wright Patterson Air-Force Base in Dayton, OH. She spent the 1953-54 academic year as an instructor of mathematics at Texas Southern University in Houston, TX. In the fall of 1954, she began a long and distinguished career of thirty-nine (39) years at Central State University (CSU) in her hometown of Wilberforce, OH: (1954-59) Assistant Professor of Mathematics, (1959-66) Associate Professor of Mathematics, (1966-84) Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, (1984-87) Vice President for Academic Affairs, (1987-93) Provost of Central State University.
In 1967, Frazier earned the Ph.D. in Mathematics from Ohio State University. Her research interest was computer applications to number theory. She joined Central State University in 1954 and in 1966 Dr. Svager became Professor of Mathematics and department chair at Central State University. In 1984 she became Vice President for Academic Affairs and in 1987 she was appointed Provost, a position which she served until retiring in 1993. Upon her retirement in 1993, the CSU bestowed upon her the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and named her Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. In March 1995, Dr. Svager came out of her retirement to serve as Interim President of CSU for a short period of time.
Dr. Svager authored several elementary texts in Mathematics: "Modern Elementary Algebra Workbook," Wm. C. Brown, 1969, and "Essential Mathematics for College Freshmen," Kendall-Hunt, 1976.
Her research interest was computer applications of number theory.
From Dr. Svager's neice Gloria Rose, we have learned:
Thyrsa Anne Frazier's father was a statistician. Her mother, E. Anne Frazier, was a professor of literature at Central State College.
Thyrsa Frazier and Coretta Scott King went to Antioch together. In fact, Coretta wrote to Thyrsa Frazier that she herself had a met an extraordinary man up in Boston. Thyrsa encouraged her to marry Martin Luther King. Thyrsa Frazier married a Holocaust Survivor, Aleks Svager, a Bosnian Jewish man.
SUMMA Thyrsa Frazier Svager web page: http://www.maa.org/summa/archive/FrazierT.htm .
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