Prof. John Horton Conway was a legendary mathematician who stood out for his love of games and for bringing mathematics to the masses. He one of the most versatile mathematicians of the past century, a wizard, polymath, and storyteller, and a natural problem-solver whose unassisted feats often left his colleagues stunned. He was Princeton’s John von Neumann Professor in Applied and Computational Mathematics and a professor of mathematics until 2013 when he transferred to emeritus status. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society. Prof. Conway made influential contributions to group theory, analysis, topology, number theory, geometry, algebra and combinatorial game theory. But, he was perhaps best known for creating the “Game of Life,” a mesmerizing cellular automaton based “no-player never-ending” game where collections of cells evolve into complex configurations depending on a few very simple rules.
Known for his unbounded curiosity and enthusiasm for subjects far beyond mathematics, Conway was a beloved figure in the hallways of Princeton’s mathematics building and at the Small World coffee shop on Nassau Street, where he engaged with students, faculty and mathematical hobbyists with equal interest. He was an active researcher and a fixture in the Princeton math department common room well into his 70s. A major stroke two years ago, however, consigned him to a nursing home. Even then he was regularly visited by his colleagues until the COVID-19 pandemic made such visits impossible when he could only discuss his ideas over the phone. We lost the legacy of this math luminary last year, on Saturday, April 11, 2020 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from complications related to COVID-19.