By Sherry F. Pruitt

Sun staff writer

JONESBORO -- Four academic degrees plus one dedicated mathematician equals 39 years of service to ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY.

Dr. Jerry L. Linnstaedter, chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will retire effective June 30.

Growing up in a rural area outside Lindale, Texas, Linnstaedter did not plan on a career as a mathematics professor and administrator. But that's how it turned out.

"I graduated high school in Lindale. I thought I did not want to go into teaching," he said. "I majored in business and was planning to go to law school."

Somehow mathematics intervened.

"I was always good at math in public schools," Linnstaedter remembered, and by the second semester in college he was closely looking at math and history.

"It took until fall of my junior year to decide to major in math and minor in history," he said.

After earning an associate's degree from Tyler Junior College in Texas and a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University in 1959, he did not have a job lined up.

"I hadn't looked for a job. The department chair at Texas A&M offered me a teaching fellowship to work on a master's in math," he said. "My duties were to teach three classes in the fall and two in the spring."

So without any training to be a teacher, Linnstaedter started teaching three sections of intermediate algebra in September 1959.

"Within the first 10 or 15 minutes of teaching my first section of intermediate algebra, I knew I wanted to teach college mathematics," Linnstaedter recalled.

He eventually earned a doctoral degree from Vanderbilt and tried to find a college or university close enough so that he could finish his studies there. That's when he found Arkansas State.

Linnstaedter was hired as division chairman and has held similar positions in the departments and colleges that have changed almost as much as he has in nearly four decades.

One colleague who knew Linnstaedter very well is Dr. James H. Stevenson.

"He ran the department directly; he was the dean of the College of Science. ... He had as much claim to getting me to do administrative work as anybody," Linnstaedter noted.

"He's a fine gentleman," Stevenson said by phone on Monday. "He's a good, cooperative faculty member. I employed him as a graduate of Vanderbilt, and he has been an outstanding scholar. He's shown loyalty to the institution the whole time he's been here. He's an excellent teacher and faculty member."

Friends and peers expressed their gratitude in their own words on a plaque, which Linnstaedter found unusual.

"Your friends and colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Department of Computer Science salute you for 39 years of outstanding service and leadership, excellence in teaching, curriculum development and caring mentorship," the plaque reads. "You have given so much, and we have been so blessed to have you. You have a special place in our hearts."

Looking back

Through the years, Linnstaedter has seen many changes to the math department, such as adding computer science, moving physics in with chemistry and changing the name.

And Linnstaedter has served the university longer than he expected.

"Finally, I just had to cut and run," he said. "I'll be 70 in July."

But he will never forget what it was like in those early years.

"It was like suddenly becoming awake to an opportunity. ... It was almost like a calling. I knew I could make a difference and those kids were where I was when I started college," Linnstaedter said.

He also found that the field of mathematics was slow to change, even though calculators and computers had a strong, positive impact.

"Algebra and calculus have not changed radically. ... It changes, but it changes gradually," he said.

The Hawks system aids math instructors in teaching developmental, intermediate and college algebra, which is helpful for students, as well as the instructors, he said.

"Homework was taken up by teachers and graded. The volume involved meant they couldn't grade as much homework as they can now with the computer," he said.

When Linnstaedter is not working, he's got a few hobbies, including reading history; raising quail, pheasants and chickens; gardening; and learning to play hymns on a used church organ.

Linnstaedter and his wife, Julie, program coordinator for research and technology transfer, have three adult daughters and a 2-year-old granddaughter.

In retirement, Linnstaedter said he is hopeful he can travel.

"I have two kids in Texas, my mother and a grandbaby. I will make more trips to Texas than I've been able to in the past," he said. "And I think I'd like to take a short trip to the Holy Land."

sherry@jonesborosun.com