Alonzo Church, born June 14, 1903, was a mathematician and philosopher and one of the most accomplished and respected logicians in the world. Church made several brilliant technical breakthroughs, any one of which would have established a permanent place for him in the field of logic. His work influenced mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. He is best known for lambda calculus, Church–Turing thesis, Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem.

When Church started working in the field of mathematical logic in the 1930s, it was an inconspicuous specialty on the fringe of mathematics. Church played a leading role in developing it into the major field it was in 1990. In 1936 he helped to found the Association for Symbolic Logic and was an exacting editor for the group's international publication, Journal of Symbolic Logic, for more than four decades. The journal helped merge streams of scholarship from mathematics, philosophy, linguistics and computer science.

An inspired teacher, Church was a professor of mathematics and philosophy at Princeton University from 1929-1967 and from 1967-1990 at the University of California at Los Angeles. He trained several of the most distinguished contemporary logicians, including Professors Martin Davis, Leon Henkin and Hartley Rogers, who spoke at the symposium in Church's honor at the University of Buffalo held May 18 and 19, 1990.

Prof. Church died August 11, 1995.

Source: Updated from the Commencement brochure in the album.