Milton Abramowitz

{{short description|Jewish American mathematician (1915–1958)}}

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Milton Abramowitz (19 February 1915 in Brooklyn, New York – 5 July 1958){{Cite journal|date=1958|title=Notes – Milton Abramowitz (1915–1958)|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2002029|journal=Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation|volume=12|issue=63|pages=264–267|jstor=2002029 |issn=0891-6837}} was a Jewish{{cite web |url=http://www.shalomhaverim.org/Judeografias/mathematician.htm |title=Jewish Mathematicians |website=Judeo-grafies|accessdate=21 July 2019}} American mathematician at the National Bureau of Standards who, with Irene Stegun, edited a classic book of mathematical tables called Handbook of Mathematical Functions, widely known as Abramowitz and Stegun. In 1958, he died while mowing the lawn of his home in suburban Washington, when the heat caused a heart attack.{{Cite journal |last=Grier |first=David Alan |date=August 2006 |title=Irene Stegun, the Handbook of Mathematical Functions , and the Lingering Influence of the New Deal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00029890.2006.11920341 |journal=The American Mathematical Monthly |language=en |volume=113 |issue=7 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1080/00029890.2006.11920341 |issn=0002-9890}} At the time, the book was not yet completed but was well underway. Stegun took over management of the project and was able to finish the work by 1964, working under the direction of the NBS Chief of Numerical Analysis Philip J. Davis, who was also a contributor to the book.

The major work of producing reliable mathematical tables, as described above, was part of the WPA project of Franklin Roosevelt.