Icosahedrons, seen in the Art Gallery in the lower BLC, are polyhedrons built by the students of math professor Dale Siegenthaler to celebrate the 100th birthday of mathematician and priest Magnus J. Wenninger. The students and professors of the math department worked on hanging this impressive display on October 30th for Father Magnus’s birthday on October 31st.

Professor Siegenthaler, a recent addition to the staff, became fascinated with the construction and calculation of polyhedrons in a math class taught by professor Van Billiard when he attended Cairn University several years back and has made them a true passion throughout his teaching career. He has been celebrating Father Magnus’s birthday in similar ways to this display for a few years and decided to bring his passions with him when he joined Cairn staff this fall after 13 years at Veritas Academy. He currently teaches Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, Calculus I, Calculus III, Number Theory, and Real Analysis and wants to work toward putting up more displays like this one throughout the campus.

Father Magnus Wenninger, born Joseph Wenninger in Wisconsin 1919, joined the Order of Saint Benedict at 21 years of age. When he graduated from college, the monks of his order gave him the opportunity to teach math on Nassau, part of the Bahamas, which he willingly accepted. As he taught, he found himself staying ahead of the students only by reading further in the textbooks than they had, and his teaching became “very stale,” which encouraged him to pursue a Master’s degree in Math Education. During his time learning, he became fascinated with the figuring and building of polyhedrons, 3-dimensional, uniform shapes such as the icosahedrons in the display. He constructed models of many of the 59 stellations of the icosahedron and was the first person to publish instructions on how to build all 75 uniform polyhedrons. He has published many books, including Polyhedrons Models for the Classroom (1966) and The World of Polyhedrons (1965). Father Magnus died on February 17, 2017. For more information on the Patron Saint of Polyhedrons, you can visit this link.

Professor Siegenthaler, his six children, and several of his mathematics students helped put together the display now currently hanging in the BLC Gallery to celebrate his contributions to math and Geometry, 100 polyhedrons for 100 years. Though Professor Siegentahler came up with and shared his idea of the display, he says he could not have done it without the students in his classes. They began by creating the models themselves, cutting and gluing the icosahedrons. After collecting nearly 140 of the shapes, they gathered on Wednesday, October 30th, to hang the models up on PVC pipes using fishing wire and weights and spent several hours figuring the exact position of each polyhedron to create the illusion of a spiral sprouting from the ceiling.

When they finished, the men’s soccer team raised the model to the ceiling and admired the work. I am sure many of you have seen it n the BLC. But if you have not, do not forget to go look at it before it comes down in the next couple weeks!