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Mathematician Cleve Moler, LINPACK Co-Creator, Dies at 86

6/22/2026

Summary

Story summary

Cleve Moler, a U.S. mathematician, died on May 20 at his Saint Michaels, Maryland home, age 86.
His daughter Kathryn Moler said Parkinson’s disease caused his death.
In the 1970s-80s he co-developed FORTRAN libraries EISPACK and LINPACK, letting engineers and biomedical researchers solve problems beyond pen-and-paper methods.
While teaching at the University of New Mexico he saw students wait days for punch-card results, spurring his tools for running calculations without low-level coding.

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Story summary

Cleve Moler, a U.S. mathematician, died on May 20 at his Saint Michaels, Maryland home, age 86.
His daughter Kathryn Moler said Parkinson’s disease caused his death.
In the 1970s-80s he co-developed FORTRAN libraries EISPACK and LINPACK, letting engineers and biomedical researchers solve problems beyond pen-and-paper methods.
While teaching at the University of New Mexico he saw students wait days for punch-card results, spurring his tools for running calculations without low-level coding.