Rod Driver
American politician
Rodney David Driver (July 1, 1932 – January 16, 2022) was a British-born American mathematician known for research on differential equations, and a former Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Between 1987 and 1995 he represented the towns of Richmond and Exeter in district 52. He was reelected on November 4, 2008, and represented the 39th District consisting of parts of Richmond, Exeter, and Charlestown from January 6, 2009, to January 4, 2011.
Education and early career
Driver was born in London, England, on July 1, 1932, to William and Marjorie Driver. Rod was a U.S. citizen from birth via his father's citizenship. He and his family lived in London during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz beginning in 1940 but were fortunate in surviving the bombardment and widespread destruction of the city during the war. Shortly after V-E Day in 1945, the Driver family was able to travel to the United States where they established residency in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After high school, Rod studied at the University of Minnesota (UM), earning a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1953, and in 1955 he earned his M.S. in Electrical Engineering also at UM. Also in 1955 he and Carole Frandsen were married. Carole and Rod had three children, David, Karen and Bruce, before he completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1960 at UM. Driver accepted a visiting appointment at the Research Institute for Advanced Studies in Baltimore, Maryland in 1960 and another at the Army Mathematics Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin in 1961 before joining the staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1962.
Academic career
Driver joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Rhode Island in 1969, and was active at the university until his retirement from academia in 1998.
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