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Max Wyman (1916-1991) was born in Lethbridge, Alberta. He was the first University of Alberta president to hold a degree from the same institution. Wyman graduated from the University of Alberta in 1937 with a BSc and received the Governor General’s Gold Medal for top achievement in mathematics. Wyman pursued his studies and ultimately earned a PhD from Stanford University in 1940.

Wyman joined the University of Alberta as a mathematics lecturer in 1943, becoming full professor in 1956, chair of the Department of Mathematics in 1961, dean of Science in 1963 and vice-president academic in 1964.

Wyman became the seventh president in 1969, and was skilled in bringing faculty, staff and students together, particularly for academic decision-making. His love of statistics and mastering numbers also brought a measure of control to the university’s budget.

Wyman served as the first chair of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission from 1974 to 1979 and worked with the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission and the Board of Review for the Provincial Courts in Alberta (Kirby Commission). He is also noted for being an Alberta Junior Golf Champion and for having written to Albert Einstein about an error in Einstein’s paper “The Influence of the Expansion of Space in the Gravitational Fields Surrounding Individual Stars”.