Marvin I. Knopp, beloved math professor, dies at 78

WELL, HE didn't really look like Groucho Marx.

But one of his advanced-calculus students said Marvin Knopp had a "Groucho-like" delivery.

He might not have been as funny as the Marx brother either, but his rich sense of humor was known to keep his students riveted on a subject that most people would not find very amusing.

Marvin Isadore Knopp, a nationally known mathematician who, as a professor in the math department of Temple University since 1976, and other schools before that, managed to make the intricacies of higher mathematics a fascinating subject, died suddenly on Christmas Eve on a family vacation in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 78.

Before coming to Temple, Marvin taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and at the University of Chicago.

His specialty was the theory of modular forms, on which he wrote and lectured extensively. He addressed the American Mathematical Society and authored more than 70 publications on the subject.

This deep thinker in the esoteric realm of number theory was a delight to have around.

"He was a tremendously kind presence in this department," said Edward Letzter, head of Temple's math department. "He had a wonderful and sharp sense of humor, a gentle sense of humor. Everyone liked him.

"He had tremendous stature in the world of number theory. His students were devoted to him."

Marvin was working with 20 Ph.D. candidates at his death, an unusually high number for a teacher.

John A. Paulos, a fellow math professor, said he was 19 and taking advanced calculus at the University of Wisconsin when he met Marvin Knopp.

"My fellow math majors and I immediately noted his ironic tone of voice and Groucho-like delivery, and hung on his every word," Paulos wrote in a tribute.

He said he came to realize that Marvin was "a very supportive and patient teacher."

When both arrived at Temple, he said he and Marvin "kidded around and riffed nonsensically whenever we met in the hallway, as well as at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and at other parties and occasions.

"He was always his warm, funny, gently skeptical self."

Both Paulos and Letzter commented on Marvin's aversion to technology.

"We were discussing something recently and Marv wondered at the etymology of some word or phrase," Paulos wrote. "I quickly looked it up on my Android phone and he said wistfully that he might like one of those, but only if it came with a human operator."

"He was famously opposed to computers," Letzter said. "He didn't have email until recently. To talk with students and collaborators, he got on the phone."

Marvin was also involved in the local classical-music scene. He was the father of Seth Knopp, a prominent chamber-music pianist who has performed around the world and taught master classes at various universities and conservatories.

Marvin had been married to Josephine Zadowsky Knopp, a well-regarded writer on Judaism, feminism, the Holocaust and related subjects. The marriage ended in divorce. In recent years, he lived with his companion, Phyllis Zemble.

He was born in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1958.

John Paulos recalled seeing Marvin and Phyllis at a toga birthday party at Princeton for Phyllis' daughter, Karen, about a month before he died.

"Marv and Phyllis were both wearing togas and looked positively vibrant as they danced across the floor," Paulos wrote. "That's the way I'll remember him."

Marvin is also survived by another son, Yehudah, and two daughters, Abby and Elana.

Services: Were Dec. 28.