Obituary: Tage Gutmann Madsen
Tage Gutmann Madsen has been a part of the Department of Mathematical Sciences since 1956 - as a teacher, Associate Professor, Head of Department and an emeritus. He died 1 June 2015, 88 years old.
Tage graduated from Marselisborg Gymnasium in 1946. He took the first part of the civil engineering exam (electro) before studying at the University of Copenhagen. He was MSc. and MA. in 1953. After a study trip to Paris, he was employed at Viborg Katedral Skole as an instructor and assistant professor aspirant.
In 1956 came Tage to the Mathematical Department at UCPH as a research assistant. In 1959 he became amanuensis (fixed-term lecturer) at the Department, and thus began a forty year period with extremely committed teaching.
Tage wrote lecture notes to countless courses at the Mathematical Department. Tage’s last notes are the basis of the present notes in analysis, still used by MATH. His handwriting, blackboard order and board drying technique are legendary, and over the years he became a more and more popular and loved lecturer.
A well-known quote: "Now I think the chalk run away with you," Tage said under a less successful examination. A "Gutmann Madsen analysis" is a thorough, careful analysis of a mathematical problem. (From the teaching of Mathematics 1 in 1963 and onwards).
In 1962 he was Head of Devision, in 1963 Associate Professor. From 1976 to 1983 Tage was Head of Department. A well-liked, careful, competent, staff-elected head of department. Tage chaired the Department Study Board until 1996 and was chairman of the Faculty Study Board until his retirement.
As the years grew, so did the piles of paper in the office - to a height where it could be difficult to make contact with Tage at his desk. Yet he could unerringly find any document that was needed.
From 1993 Tage wrote a long series of articles for the Great Danish Encyclopedia (Online version: www.denstoredanske.dk). In 1997 Tage became Emeritus at the Department. The years were used for various archivist tasks, especially the contribution about universities and colleges in the book "Mathematics Teaching in Denmark in the 1900s," Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2008.
Tage was privately a tireless adventurer who went hiking all over the world. The staffs in the MATH administration remembers him for the small gifts and long stories, he always brought home from the journeys.
Tage Gutmann Madsen will be missed.