Happy 100th Birthday to Emma Lehmer

[ewmayer]

Message from John Brillhart (co-inventor of the continued fraction factoring method, if that means anything to you) to the Number Theory mailing list:

Subject: Emma Lehmer will be 100 on November 6
From: John Brillhart
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:33:29 -0500

Dear mathematicians,

Dear friends,

I thought I should let you know that on Nov. 6, Emma Lehmer, who founded
the West Coast Number Theory Meeting with her husband Dick Lehmer in 1969,
will be 100 years old.

She is still living happily in Berkeley at her house at 1180 Miller Ave.,
Berkeley, CA 94708-1755. She is in good health, though forgetful, and still
loves to serve tea and cookies to visitors. She has a live-in companion who
helps her run the house. Also, she loves to take long walks with friends in
the Berkeley hills.

Her daughter Laura, who is usually there with visitors, said she thought Emma
might enjoy getting cards from people, who want to celebrate her birthday, over
an extended period of time; so I plan to mail my card some time later in November.

Best wishes,

John Brillhart

Long walks in the Berkeley Hills at age 100 ... we should all be so blessed.

Any notes, stories and anecdotes from people who knew, worked with or had the chance to meet either of the Lehmers would be appreciated. I seem to recall she attended one of the early informal SF Bay Area GIMPS-folks gatherings, but that was before I moved to the West Coast. I've been to several of the aforementioned West Coast Number Theory Conferences at which I've had the pleasure to meet the likes of John Selfridge, both Brillhart
and Morrison of CFRAC fame, Jeff Lagarias, the Borwein brothers, Bob Silverman, Peter Montgomery, and many others, but not Mrs. Lehmer -- I expect she probably last attended one many years ago.

[philmoore]

I remember seeing her at the Lehmer memorial conference in Berkeley in, I think it was 2001. Her daughter said she was forgetful then, but she still seemed to enjoy seeing people, many of them old friends, who had come to the conference.