Warren receiving his Erdös award from Professor Hyman Bass.

Warren Atkins OAM

Born 18 October 1938
Died 24th November 2025

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Bruce Henry, a beloved member of the mathematics community.

Warren would often joke about his height, and it is true that, by any metric standard, he was not a man of great stature. However, when it comes to the history of the Australian Maths Trust, he was undoubtedly a giant. Warren started out as a high school mathematics teacher but soon found out that his vocation was to teach teachers and he moved to a position at the Canberra College of Advanced Education where he was in charge of the training of secondary maths teachers for almost thirty years. In 1976, along with colleagues Peter Taylor, Jo Edwards and Peter O’Halloran, Warren, as Chairman of the Problems Committee, was responsible for producing the very first High School Mathematics Competition in 1976, which was so successful that, by 1978, it had morphed into a national competition, the Australian Mathematics Competition.

Warren continued on the Problems Committee for an astonishing 44 years, only stepping down in 2022. For most of that time (1976 – 79 and 1981 – 2012) he was the committee chair, and in 2003 he was instrumental in setting up a second problems committee to develop primary divisions of the competition, which began in 2004.

Warren was a member of the Australian Mathematics Foundation from 1976 – 2012 and was the Chair of that body from 1995 – 2012. He was also deeply involved in the establishment of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions (WFNMC) and at the inaugural meeting of this body in 1984, he took on the role of editing the Foundation newsletter and was appointed as editor of the Federation journal Mathematics Competitions, a role which he continued until 2004. Along with Peter Taylor, Warren was also responsible, for many years, for the in-house editing of Solutions and Statistics books for the AMC and the publication of a number of books on problem-solving. Warren has also been a member of the AMOC committee. He received the BH Neumann award from the Trust in 1993. The WFNMC honoured Warren with the Erdős award in 2004 and he received an OAM in 2018 for his services to mathematics education.

Impressive though this list of achievements is, it does not capture Warren, the man. An active sportsman, Warren was still swimming regularly and playing tennis until shortly before his final illness. He was a man of great warmth and charm, who, along with his wife Naida, ensured that all problems committee members felt welcome as a part of the AMT community. Warren’s leadership style was all about building trust and confidence and valuing all contributions. I had the great privilege of taking over from Warren as Chair of the Problems committees in 2012 and he prepared me for this role over a number of years and was always there to support me. Colleagues have spoken to me about Warren’s generosity of spirit and gentle humour and I don’t think any committee members thought of the work as a chore, because Warren made it such an enjoyable experience for everybody.

Warren was famous for his problem cards. In the days before everything became computerised, every question submitted would be stuck on an index card and when papers were in preparation, these cards would be shuffled around on the table to produce the best possible paper. Warren always lamented that the giant repository of cards which constituted questions submitted but not used, was a valuable resource and that more should be done with it. I believe these boxes of cards are still sitting in a cupboard somewhere in the AMT office!

It is incredibly sad that in 2025, we have lost two of the giants in the history of the AMT in Bruce Henry and Warren Atkins.

Mike Clapper, Canberra

WARREN ATKINS OAM EULOGY

Good afternoon everyone and thank you Naida for inviting me to talk today about my long time close colleague and family friend.

I first knew Warren’s brother Keith, as we both played first grade squash in Canberra as did Graham Pollard, where between Graham and me we taught Maths and Stats. In 1973 Keith told us his younger brother Warren, who had completed a Masters at Macquarie under the famous Freddie Chong, was applying for a lectureship at what is now University of Canberra, where we worked. I found this interesting as a close academic colleague who had shared an office with me at the University of Adelaide while we both worked on our PhDs had told me that he had applied for the same position. As it happened both were interviewed but Warren won, and whereas he was in the Faculty of Education training Mathematics teachers, he worked very closely at all times with my colleagues who were teaching mathematics and Keith’s involvement was very helpful in enabling this. So thank you Keith, you may have catalysed Warren’s association with us and helped our joint careers.

My senior colleague Peter O’Halloran had seen mathematics Competitions run effectively while on study leave in Canada, and also another competition in the US, and said he would like to put a team together to see if one would work in Canberra. So Warren, another mathematics colleague Josephine Edwards and myself came forward to form his team and in 1976 we advertised it, not being sure if it would take off because the word “competition” was not in vogue with some teachers because they felt it implied pressure.

Warren became the first chair of the Problems Committee and Jo and I were more involved initially in administration. To our pleasant surprise every Canberra secondary school entered a number of students, there were over 1300 altogether. So we knew we were on a winner and in 1977 conducted a pilot scheme with schools in other parts of the country and went national as the Australian Mathematics competition in 1978. In a few years we had over half a million students a year and it was so successful we were approached by French mathematicians to see if we approved of them developing one based on ours and calling it the Kangaroo.

I took Study Leave at the Open University in Britain in 1978 and Warren followed me there in 1979 so I took over as Problems Committee Chairman for about 15 years while Warren and Jo remained active, When Peter O’Halloran died in 1994 I was appointed to take his place as Executive Director of what had become the Australian Mathematics Trust, which had also developed programs leading to students towards taking part in representing Australia in the International Mathematical Olympiad. So Warren went back from Deputy Chair to Chair of the AMC Problems Committee and stayed on it until only about 3 years ago, although at one stage he passed the job of Chair to Mike Clapper.

In the early 2000s we decided to start an AMC for Primary students and Warren founded that committee also, which had different personnel, including Primary School teachers.

Warren did many other things in the Maths Trust including chairing for many years the national committee which administered the AMC and publishing many books, including of a pedagogical nature.

The AMC became a massive source of research data. In the early days Jo Edwards conducted research on the data, and once made the front page of the Australian, but she died in 1985, and Warren, Graham and I took over the research and published many papers on aspects like risk-taking, gender and mathematics topics in refereed journals.

Warren was part of the founding meeting in Adelaide in 1984 of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions which became the professional body linked to the International Commission for Mathematics Instruction. Warren became the founding editor of its Newsletter, and he developed it into the refereed Journal it is today and kept editing it for many years. That World Federation presented him with an Erdos Award, their main award, in 2004.

There was more in our friendship with Warren and his family. They soon moved into a house just 2 doors from ours and the two families became very close. Close enough for Naida to speak at my wife Lois’ funeral in 2012. When my children Gregory and Stephanie and I made our last visit to see Warren in hospital Naida would refer to Stephanie as her niece when speaking to hospital staff.

There were many lighter occasions and more serious ones when we were at times both regularly attacked by the same magpie. When Grange wine was only $6.99 a bottle I had bought a case of it to use if there was to be a special occasion. My sister was staying with me when I got what I thought would be my first and only promotion, to Senior Lecturer, so I got some Grange out and my sister reminds me I went and got Warren from his home to come down and celebrate with it also.

There were many social occasions where we had good parties, usually featuring Graham Pollard and his wife, although Warren and Naida moved to Newcastle on retirement, and obviously we depended on less frequent visits to get together.

Warren also loved his sport, and not long before he broke his bad diagnosis with me he was boasting that he was still playing sport. He was keen on his tennis, golf, squash and swimming for most of his life.

He was also awarded an OAM acknowledging his many achievements in 2018. In all Warren has had a very active and successful life and we will remember him as a man loved and admired by all.

Peter Taylor

15 December 2025