toledoblade.com -- BGSU professor a talented sculptor

BOWLING GREEN - Clifford Long, a mathematics professor at Bowling Green State University and gifted sculptor who used his talent to help students visualize math, died of cancer Tuesday in his home here. He was 71.

Dr. Long was born April 10, 1931, on the south side of Chicago. His father was a carpenter, and his influence may have been what first attracted Dr. Long to math, his son Steven Long said.

"He liked the angles, the measuring, the visual side of life," he said.

After high school, Dr. Long took a job as an order checker in the stockyards with Armour, Inc. He left the stockyards for the University of Illinois at Navy Pier in Chicago, where he studied math. Later, he transferred to the university's Champaign-Urbana campus, where he met his future wife, Patricia Marilyn Cline.

Dr. Long obtained his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctorate in mathematics from the University of Illinois. He took a teaching position at BGSU in 1959 and taught there for the next 35 years.

"So many people just want to do research and get grants," said his son, Thaddeus Long. "He wanted to teach people to love math."

Dr. Long carved the graphical displays of functions - mathematical relationships often too complex for the average person to visualize - in wood and marble for his students to see.

"People would see it and say, `I always wanted to see what a three-foil knot would look like!'" Steven Long said.

Dr. Long took a special interest in computer graphics and the visualization of mathematical ideas. He was a pioneer in bringing the computer into classrooms at BGSU, and photographs of his sculptures were published in many science journals.

Despite a strong commitment to his work, Dr. Long found time to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Wheeled Meals, a meal delivery service he helped found.

He was devoted to his family, coaching his children's baseball teams and singing with his sons in a barbershop quartet.

Surviving are his wife, Patricia Marilyn Long; sons, Steven, Andrew, and Thaddeus, and daughter, Melinda Gedeon.

Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Bowling Green First Presbyterian Church, where the family will receive friends from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. today and again from 1:30 p.m. until the service begins on Saturday. The Dunn Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

The family requests tributes to the BGSU Foundation Cliff & Lyn Long Scholarship Fund or to the Presbyterian Church Foundation Cliff & Lyn Long Local Benevolence Fund.

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