Dr. Vivienne Malone-Mayes, the iconic civil rights activist and pioneering Baylor mathematics professor, was an early mentor and later a dear friend.

She taught me many things about mathematics - and life.

One of her most frequent lessons was that, when you face a particularly challenging problem, it is often useful to set aside the incremental work that has been done previously and go back to the very origins of the issue you are seeking to address.