Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Patrick Suppes 1922-2014

In his 64 years at Stanford, Suppes published 34 books and hundreds of articles, many co-authored, in good scientific style, with a number of close collaborators.

Yet his contributions to Stanford ranged far beyond his prodigious scholarship, including both important administrative positions and the creation of new institutions for research and education, such as Stanford's Institute for Mathematical Research in the Social Sciences, which he directed from 1959-1990, and Stanford's Education Program for Gifted Youth, which he directed from 1990-2010.

These activities at Stanford were continuous with Suppes' career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. In 1967 he founded the Computer Curriculum Corporation, the first company focused on interactive computer-assisted learning in the classroom. The programs he developed were largely based on his highly successful elementary mathematical textbook series, Sets and Numbers.

Almost a decade before the invention of the personal computer, Patrick Suppes, a Stanford philosopher, sketched a vision of the democratic future of computerized education.

“In a few more years,” he predicted in 1966, “millions of schoolchildren will have access to what Philip of Macedon’s son Alexander enjoyed as a royal prerogative: the personal services of a tutor as well informed and as responsive as Aristotle.”

Dr. Suppes, who died on Nov. 17 at 92, was not just prescient, however; he was also instrumental in bringing about the future he foresaw — one in which students would have instant access to vast stores of knowledge through their computerized “tutors.”