I actually knew professor Rota. Not well, but he was an MIT math professor, and I recall visiting his office a few times, I don’t recall why.

 

My personal recollection is more of his office - it was almost the epitome of a eccentric math professor’s office. Stuff was stacked everywhere.

 

For example, there were some giant books that turned out to be a huge collection of photocopies of newspapers that the library had been throwing away. He could not abide by the waste, so he saved them and kept them in his office until he figured out what to do with them. I have no idea how long they had been there, nor how long they stayed.

There is a Kousa dogwood tree dedicated to him a few feet from this stone.

 

(I didn’t find this by accident. I was browsing future walks at Mt Auburn, and saw his name in one of the walks.)

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian-Carlo_Rota