Richard Gillette passed away on April 28, 2025. He was kind, thoughtful, and intellectually sharp for all of his 89 years.
Richard was born in 1936 in Reno, Nevada, to Thomas and Mary (Teglia) Gillette. His father was a professional musician, who taught Richard how to play the banjo and gave him a solid grounding in the fundamentals of musical theory. With this education and his underlying talent and ‘musical ear,’ playing and listening to music were an important part of his entire life.
Richard was lucky enough to live at a time when a middle-class kid could afford to go to college, without incurring debt. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno. He claimed that he held the department’s record for the most glass breakage in the lab, so he switched to mathematics for graduate work. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics from the University of Utah in 1962. Topology, and later, dynamical systems, were his primary interests.
In 1956 Richard married Kay Beverly Johnston. They had three children: Chris, Ken, and Lisa. He was fortunate to be able to work at what he loved – theoretical mathematics and teaching – and still afford to raise a family.
He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon from 1962 until 1967. In 1967 he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at Montana State University. He spent one academic year, 1978- 1979, on sabbatical at Tulane University in New Orleans where he co-authored with Maurice Dupre a research monograph “Banach Bundles, Banach Modules, and Automorphisms of C*-Algebras.” He also took advantage of the great music, culture, and cuisine of New Orleans.
In 1977, Richard and Kay divorced, and in 1980, he married Susan Hinkins. He took a two year leave of absence from MSU to join Susan in Washington DC, allowing her to establish her career in statistics. They both returned to Bozeman in 1983, where Susan was able to continue her work in the early days of tele-commuting.
They both enjoyed music – attending the Bozeman Symphony and the Inter-Mountain opera, and also playing Scottish music with the Reel and Strathspey Society. Combining their love of dance and travel, they took several trips to St Andrews Scotland for Scottish country dancing and went on several folk dance trips, his favorite being a tour of Thrace.
Social issues were a high priority of Richard’s. He was a board member of the ACLU of Montana and the Montana Shares, and he was a member of the Gallatin Human Rights Task Force. He was active in the effort to unionize the faculty and staff at MSU.
Upon retirement in 2006, he was conferred the title of Professor Emeritus, which enabled him to use the university library facilities. He regularly checked the new book shelf, taking out books on a wide variety of topics. While Richard was always interested in physics, after retirement he turned to serious reading in that area, using the university to borrow journal articles and monographs. In 2013, CERN announced that there would be a special weekend open house for the general public. There were a limited number of tickets for underground tours to see the Large Hadron Collider tunnel and detectors, and the tickets were released on-line, at random times. Richard really wanted to go, and finally at 2 am one morning, he obtained two tickets. He and Susan travelled to Geneva to attend the CERN Open Days, where in addition to the underground tour, there were many exhibits and talks by scientists eager to share their work.
Richard is survived by his wife, Susan Hinkins; sons, Chris and Ken; granddaughters, Heather (Tanner) Stapp and Annie Gillette; great-grandchildren, Brooklyn and Brendan Stapp; sister-in-law, Bambi Gillette; nieces and grand-nieces and grand-nephews; and Susan’s sister, Jean.
His parents; his brother, Randy; and his daughter, Lisa pre-deceased him.
We want to thank everyone who was a part of Richard’s life, including Stillwater Hospice, who made it possible for him to die peacefully in his own bed.
There will be a celebration of life this summer. Donations in his memory can be made to the ACLU of Montana Foundation or HRDC in Bozeman.
Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com
