āMost afternoons out of the week youāll find Dr. Bryan Young at Hannahās Coffee House puzzling over a particularly onerous math problem. Heās usually at the seat by the window, and heās always wearing a bowtie. Sometimes he drops in an extra tip in the tip jar and requests the barista to change the background music to something classical.
Not so long ago, Young would be standing in an operating room as day broke, ready to make the first incision in a patientās chest.
He would leave home before sunrise and return after it had set.
As a cardiac surgeon, he said, he lived for the sight of blood before 7 a.m.
These days, youāll most likely to find him at Hannahās with a decaffeinated caramelo at his elbow and a copy of Complex Analysis and Calculus in front of him.
Young hasnāt embarked on a new late life career, however, he simply does advanced mathematics for fun.
āI enjoy the solitude and tranquility of math,ā Young explained. āAnd the fact that it is concrete, not chaotic.ā
For Young, the stability of numbers was a welcome change after the chaos of medicine.
He said heās always been attracted to mathematics but has never been particularly gifted in the subject. Persistence, he said, trumps intellectual ability.
Several years ago, after returning to Shelby from Alabama, Young started taking algebra and other math classes at Cleveland Community College. Once he had completed all of those he moved on to Gardner-Webb University. Some of them he took twice.
āItās like watching a favorite movie,ā he said. āYou learn things the second go around.ā
Word of his mathematical abilities began to spread, and Young said he often has people approach him and ask for help. He tutors local high school or college students, and he does it for free. He said he never advertises, but people find him and he is willing to share his knowledge.
And hopefully his love for the subject ends up being contagious.
āMath should be like a fine wine,ā he said, āsipped slowly and savored. Unfortunately, most math classes and exams are like a beer drinking competition.āā
I just love this front page story in our hometown newspaper so much.
http://www.shelbystar.com/news/20180315/retired-surgeon-works-equations-for-fun