Mark R. Leeper, 1950-2025

Mark R. Leeper passed away on February 22, 2025.  His end was very peaceful; one moment there was a breath, and the next there wasn't.
Mark was born in Chicago in 1950, and has lived in Chicago, West Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, and for the last 47 years, New Jersey.  He received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts in 1972, an M.S. in mathematics from Stanford University in 1974, and an M.E. in electrical engineering and computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1982.  While at Stanford, he had a paper published in aequationes mathematicae (Vol. 10, Fasc. 1, 1974) on which he had begun work as an undergraduate, “An Odd Solution to the Functional Equation P((x+1)/2)=exp P(x)”.  He was employed at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel and surrounding locations for 23 years until his retirement in 2001.  After retiring he ran a free drop-in math tutoring session twice a week for a dozen years at the Old Bridge Public Library, and when he had to leave for health reasons, it was continued by some of the students he had tutored.
For many years, Mark had been the longest-running film reviewer on the Internet, regularly publishing reviews since 1984, and being a member of the Online Film Critics Society since 2014.  His first science fiction convention was Boskone VI (1969) and he attended dozens of conventions, serving on panels about film, and also leading origami workshops at many of them.  In 1978, Mark and his wife founded the science fiction club at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, which existed until their retirement in 2001, and then continued to produce THE MT VOID, a weekly zine featuring Mark's editorials and film writing.  It was published continuously over 46 years, with over 2300 issues.  Mark traveled to about five dozen countries and published several lengthy travelogues on-line.  He leaves behind him his wife of 52 years Evelyn, sister Sherry, brother David, and many cousins, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and friends.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the UMass Amherst Foundation, for the Leeper Mathematics Scholarship.
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Evelyn C. Leeper, http://leepers.us/evelyn