Zoltan Dienes passed away peacefully on January 11, 2014 with family and friends beside him, and the sounds of Hungarian folks songs being sung, as well as one written by his mother, Valeria. His obituary can be found at this link.
Donations in memory can be made to Canadian Friends Service Committee or Compassion Canada
Feel free to leave comments on this post if you wish to celebrate his life. (Click on the post title: “Zoltan Paul Dienes (1916-2014)” if you cannot see the comment box.)
Les séances de travail avec Zoltan ont toujours été des moments joyeux; Dienes était l’homme le plus étonnant ..d’abord pour son affection envers les enfants, puis l’appel systématique à l’intelligence..l’enthousiasme de la découverte et sa capacité à concrétiser les outils mathématiques…d’excellents souvenirs professionnels. Affectueux souvenirs à toute sa famille.
Grandpa holds a special place in my heart.
For it were he who healed with those kind words.
For it were he who inspired my noble life path.
For it were he who mended my broken, saddened heart.
It is he – my Grandpa, sweet love eternal.
“Good Night, Sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”
………………………………………………………
“Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace:
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.”
With everlasting love, your Grandson, Dan.
As a young teacher at Elementary school in Germany I learned the New mathematics by Zoltan Paul Dienes. From the beginnig I was fascinated by his new ideas of mathematic. I used the Logic blocks, the multibase blocks and I studied his books for example “Aufbau der Mathematik” Professor Dienes gave me so much for my mathematic teaching. I am not able to express my deep gratitude to him for all, what I received from him. When I got contact with him by Email I was so happy, because I could say to him: Thank you!
My condolence to to all of his family!
Fritz Haugg, Germany
Thanks for help me to make my country a fairer place.
I teach math teachers.
Thank you master, your life illuminates paths.
Thanks from the last country in our beautiful planet, Chile.
I miss you Uncle Zed, your kind e-mails and your poems ….
May you rest in peace with your beloved Tessa …
Until we meet again …..
Love from Kitty es Aga
His ideas deserve a revival, they were very useful to me as a teacher.
Dear Dienes, I continue to admire your work.
I will never forget you..
From South of Korea..
Hi,
my name is Riccardo, I’m a 39yo from Florence, Italy. I’m sorry but I’m not fluent in english.
When I was young, at my Elementary school, (6yo to 11yo), I had the pleasure to met a lot of times the professor. One or twice a year, he would come to my class to teaching is method e play with us. Even our school(maybe just math? I don’t quite remeber) textbook, was written by him. With his happy and smiling face.
One time he comes with a wonderfull project, a robotic turtle who draw in a big sheet on the floor, via a computer program. It was amazing, I still remeber this futuristic robot (’86 or ’87) who draws lines, shape in various color. It gives me chill just thinking about.
I loved is method, I loved logic blocks ,multibase blocks, but over everything, now I can understand that I loved the passion and the love he poured on us, and teaching. Always kind, with his very thick and long eyebrows.
When I heard that it passed away, it saddened me. A lot.
Thanks to him I developed an insatiable curiosity, and passion for logic and mathematics.
I hope that these words may reach his family as a memento of his importance, not just for me, but for a lot children who ran toward him, extremely excited to see him arrive and hug him and screaming “maestro dieneeeeeeessssssssss”.
He was a wonderfull person.
thank you for all you did for me.
i’m currently writing my master’s thesis ans you’re gonna be a part of it.
For your ideas, your work and devotion, thank you