Patricia J. Eberlein, 75, a University of Buffalo professor emerita, mathematician and one of the nation’s earliest female computer scientists, died Tuesday (Aug.11, 1998) in her Buffalo home after a long battle with lung cancer.

Ms. Eberlein was the first and, to date, the only woman to head UB’s computer science department. She was acting chairwoman in 1971-72 and chairwoman from 1981 to 1984.

Born Patricia James in Washington, D.C., she attended the Shipley School and received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1944.

After a stint as a pilot flying planes from manufacturing plants to military bases during World War II, she had a brief career as a fashion model in New York City, then married and operated a ranch in South Dakota.

Divorced and the single mother of two children, she resumed her education and earned a master’s degree and doctorate at Michigan State University.

In 1956, she became a research mathematician for the Institute of Advanced Study’s Electronic Computer Project in Princeton, N.J. The computer created under this project was designed by John von Neumann, the father of modern computing, and now is in the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1957, she went to the University of Rochester, where she was a research associate and then the assistant director of analysis at the university’s computing center.

She joined UB’s new computer science department in 1967 as an associate professor, commuting from Rochester to Buffalo until she moved here in 1976. She became a full professor in 1975 and retired in 1996.

As chairwoman, she significantly increased the amount of sophisticated computer equipment in the department.

Her research specialty was numerical analysis, particularly linear algebra and combinatorial algorithms.

In 1984, she received a Visiting Professorship for Woman Award from the National Science Foundation. In 1988, she was a visiting senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.

She was one of the original members of the Gatlinburg group, which now numbers more than 400 researchers.

She served on several national editorial and review boards and was one of the earliest women elected to the Council of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

As a member of many professional societies, she was active in the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Mathematical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Women in Mathematics.

She often spoke on panels about the need to attract more women to study mathematics and computer science.

She was the widow of William Eberlein, a member of the mathematics faculty at the University of Rochester, who died in 1986.

Surviving are four daughters, Sarah Wells of Oak Park, Ill., Mary Wells of Rochester, Kristen of Durham, N.C., and Kathryn Klaber of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; three sons, Patrick of Chapel Hill, N.C., Michael of Amherst, Ohio, and Robert of Glendale [sic], Md.; a brother, William S. James of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; 12 grandchildren; and a great granddaughter.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Unitarian Universalist Church, 695 Elmwood Ave.

Source:
The Buffalo News, Friday, 14 August 1998