Bristow

Colorado College has never drawn more than a few students from the surrounding towns. But in 1922, Leonard Bristow, having grown up in Colorado Springs, entered Colorado College and majored in mathematics. He and his mother lived in Stratton Park, a poorer section of town, where he remembers attending Cheyenne High School held on the second floor of a building where the first floor housed the earlier grades. His mother was sufficiently resourceful to come up with the $75 per semester tuition fee allowing Leonard to attend the nationally known college. Each day just before 8:00 a.m., he took the streetcar up Tejon street to the stop on Cache La Poudre, just in front of Palmer Hall. After classes and compulsory chapel, with not many comfortable places to study, Leonard returned home; there, he enjoyed endless hikes up Cheyenne Canyon.

Life on the campus at the time centered around the dormitories (where the women students lived) and the fraternities (where the men students lived). Bristow felt like an outsider. He did, however, know the mathematics faculty: Albright, Lovitt, and Sisam. As Bristow recalls, Sisam was a good teacher although somewhat aloof, Lovitt showed more interest in students, and Albright was positively friendly. The president of the college was Clive Duniway, who Bristow noted was soundly disliked by the students. There was also a shadow of past troubles at the end President Slocum's era when Cajori left (1918), but Bristow and probably the majority of students were unaware of the details.

Most students studying mathematics at the time were interested in becoming teachers. Bristow had little interest in teaching, but he did have interest and ability in mathematics. It was a pleasant surprise to Leonard when at the end of his senior year, he earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Sisam recognized his mathematical ability and encouraged him to consider graduate study. With Sisam's help, Bristow won a $300 scholarship from the University of Illinois. There he earned his Ph.D. studying analysis. Despite his earlier uncertainty about teaching, he accepted teaching positions at the University of Illinois, the University of Wyoming, Santa Clara University, and San Jose State University during his academic career. He retired to Colorado Springs with his wife, and was doing well when visited by Steven Janke and John Fauvel of the mathematics department on April 1, 1999. After a long life, he died on October 24, 2002 at the age of 98.