Yesterday I thanked Kathleen Ollerenshaw again for the lift she gave me in 1973. I haven't seen her since. Then I didn't know she was a mathematician but yesterday in the reception before Robin Wilson's inaugural maths lecture, I noticed this old lady sitting alone and asked if she was a mathematician. She said "Oh yes. Very much so!" It was only after the lecture that someone told me her name. She is very old and has a stick, but just as pleasant as she was then.
I knew of her when I was at school, as having something to do with the education committee in Manchester. The education authorities said that they wouldn't pay for someone like me in the sixth form of a direct grant school and my parents mentioned her name when explaining why I might choose to leave and go to an FE college
She's got an Erdős number of five, which means that she coauthored a paper with someone who co authored a paper ... an Erdős number of one is someone who coauthored a paper directly with Erdős. My mathematically inclined daughter is well impressed.
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