Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History
Sauer, Anne
Branco, Jessica
Bennett, John
Crowley, Zachary
2000
Ralph S. Kaye Memorial Prize, 1947
The Ralph S. Kaye Memorial Prize was founded in 1947 by members of Omicron Chapter of Phi Epsilon Pi as a memorial to Ralph Sumner Kaye, E1937, who died while serving as a lieutenant aboard a destroyer sunk in the naval battle for Okinawa (Gunte) in 1945. It is awarded to a junior or senior who, at the conclusion of two years or more of mathematics courses and irrespective of his/her major field of concentration, demonstrates a favorable combination of proficiency in mathematics and participation in extracurricular activities. | |
Lieutenant Ralph Sumner Kaye was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. At Tufts he specialized in the mathematical side of electrical engineering and was elected to the honorary engineering society Tau Beta Psi. He was also a member of Omicron Chapter of Phi Epsilon Pi. In his freshman year he was elected vice president of his class. In 1942, he entered the Navy and was sent overseas in 1943 as a radar operator with a destroyer escort in the Atlantic and Southwest Pacific. He was killed in a battle at Okinawa Gunte in May 1945 when his destroyer was sunk. Only two weeks earlier he had met with his brother David, E1935, who also served in the Navy. | |
Because of his particular interest in mathematics, his fraternity chapter commemorated him with a prize in mathematics. The Kaye Prize was first presented in 1947. | |
Source: BTU[Arts and Sciences/Engineering];100H | |
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