The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 92

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Bradd Hart
Fields at that time from England and was on a transatlantic
flight on 9/11. It wasn’t until 9/12 that we got an email from
him—he was being taken care of by a lovely couple in Gander,
Newfoundland, who were letting him use their rec room. His
was one among the many stories that went into the current
musical “Come from Away.”
Something small that made me feel proud was being part of
the scientific panel when the Fields-CRM prize was awarded
to Bill Tutte. Bill had been a prominent mathematician at
Waterloo for years and was then in retirement. He was also
not in good health, and the scientific panel made a push
to award him the prize in the last year of his life. What
I had not properly understood was Bill’s role at Bletchley
Park during World War II. While some of my ignorance was
due to the secrecy around these things after the war, some
of it was due to the general lack of knowledge of a younger
generation. I remember that Roy MacLaren gave a very
stirring tribute to Bill at the Fields AGM dinner that year, and
I was embarrassed that he knew more about this prominent
mathematician than I did.