Jose W. Melgarejo
I was so sad to find out today that Theral had passed away. I was even sadder to find out that Nancy Moore had passed away as well, before him in 2018. I met them both in the Math department at UF in 1990, when I began my graduate work in mathematics. They both quickly became very good friends to me. I spent countless hours both at UF and at their house talking about math among other things. His oldest son, Steve, and I were both graduate students in Math at UF. Steve was busy developing GPS, in the hopes of helping his dad, Theral, navigate freely throughout the UF campus. Thanks to Theral, I developed my love for math. He taught me how to learn/teach math properly. I did just that when I became a math teacher at a public school in Guam for about 16 years. I agree with all the comments stated above about him, and I would like to add some anecdotes, his beloved wife, Nancy, shared with me over the years: She once attended a meeting of the wives of UF professors, where they were discussing the value of reading that should be instilled in the incoming undergraduate students at UF. At some point in the discussion, Nancy, rose her hand and said that she knew a math professor, who could not read. The whole audience stared at her in disbelief. Then she added that that man was her husband and he was born blind. Everybody was silent for a second, before bursting into laughter. Some years later, on another occasion, Nancy told me that she was late to return home to help Theral to get dressed for work. When she saw Theral dressed and ready to go to work, she could not believe her eyes. He was wearing a red shirt and a mis matched pair of red pants with nonmatching shoes and socks, looking like a clown. She could not help but to erupt into laughter. The final story is when she had rearranged the furniture in the Livingroom one day. Later that day, she picked up Theral from UF. When they arrived home, she dropped Theral home and went out to buy groceries from a nearby store. When she returned home, she saw Theral covered with blood and limping. It was only then that she remembered that she had forgotten to tell Theral that she had rearranged the furniture. Poor Theral had entered a totally rearranged room where he crashed into unexpected pieces of furniture and fell to the ground.
Jose Williams Melgarejo
May 28 of 2025
