Shortly after Georgia Benkart arrived at the UW, she gave a graduate course in Lie algebras. I attended Georgia’s lectures in this course, and I was doubly impressed.
First, although I had seen Lie algebras previously, I not realized how beautiful that subject could be until Georgia made it come alive in her course. In fact, I was nearly seduced by Georgia’s lectures into abandoning my first mathematical love — group theory — and I began thinking about problems in Lie algebras. Indeed, I wrote and published two papers (jointly with Georgia and our colleague, J. Marshall Osborn) on simple Lie algebras in prime characteristic, and a further paper jointly with Georgia.
Another impressive aspect of Georgia’s course was her beautiful lectures. These were carefully prepared and extremely well presented, and even her blackboard use was exceptionally fine, with beautiful handwriting and excellent organization.
I also got to know Georgia very well in a non-mathematical context. She lived for a while in an apartment building adjacent to where I lived, and since I had a very convenient campus parking space, we agreed that she would come to the math department each morning in my car. Because of this daily contact, our friendship developed nicely. I enjoyed those commutes with Georgia, and I was sad when she moved out of my neighborhood, and thus ended our morning co-commutes.
Although I have not really seen much of Georgia since we both retired from the UW, her untimely death produces in me an emotion of sadness that is akin to, but of course much stronger than, the feeling I had when she stopped riding in to campus with me every morning.
Not only will I miss Georgia, but also, I expect that she will be missed by her other collaborators and by her students, and indeed, by everyone who had any substantial contact with her.
