Auburn University traces its beginnings to East Alabama Male
College, which opened its doors to students in Auburn, Alabama, in
1859.  The college became a state institution, Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Alabama, in 1872 when it was made the land-
grant-institution in the state.  Women were admitted in 1892 and in
1899 the name was changed to Alabama Polytechnic Institute.  After
operating primarily as a Baccalaureate institution for many years,
the university began its move toward becoming a research
institution in the 1950's and the Department of Mathematics played
a central role in this change.  In 1949, the well-known matrix
theorist, Vann Parker, was hired away from LSU (where he was Math.
Dept. Chair) to become Head of the Mathematics Department at
Auburn.  Parker was named Dean of the Graduate School in 1953 and
served in both roles for many years.  The first Ph. D. awarded at
Auburn in 1955 was in mathematics and supervised by Parker.
     Two of Parker's key hires were Ben Fitpatrick, Jr. (a well-
known and respected topologist) who joined the faculty in 1959, and
Emily Haynsworth (a respected matrix theorist) whom he hired away
from the National Bureau of Standards in 1960.  L. P. Burton took
over Headship of the Department in 1966 with Parker continuing as
Dean of the Graduate School.  These four people played the key
roles in increasing the emphasis on research in the department and
at the university.  There have been some "bumps in the road" along
the way, of course.  The university administration decided to
restructure mathematics at Auburn in 1986 and created a Division of
Mathematics (an apt description) containing two departments.
Mathematics at Auburn functioned under that structure for 7 years
until a large majority of the faculty in both departments
petitioned the administration to re-create the Department of
Mathematics, which was done in 1993.  A "final" recombination will
occur next fall when the Department of Discrete and Statistical
Sciences will be absorbed into the Department of Mathematics,
resulting in a very strong research department containing respected
faculty in many fields, including algebra, analysis, combinatorics,
geometry, topology, statistics, and several areas of applied
mathematics.