  saunders mac lane (4 august 1909 â 14 april 2005) was an american mathematician who co-founded category theory with samuel eilenberg. ==early life and education== mac lane was born in norwich, connecticut, near where his family lived in taftville.. he was christened "leslie saunders maclane", but "leslie" fell into disuse because his parents, donald maclane and winifred saunders, came to dislike it. he began inserting a space into his surname because his first wife found it difficult to type the name without a space.mac lane (2005), p. 6. he was the oldest of three brothers; one of his brothers, gerald maclane, also became a mathematics professor at rice university and purdue university. another sister died as a baby. his father and grandfather were both ministers; his grandfather had been a presbyterian, but was kicked out of the church for believing in evolution, and his father was a congregationalist. his mother, nÃ©e winifred saunders, studied at mount holyoke college and taught english, latin, and mathematics. in high school, mac lane's favorite subject was chemistry. while in high school, his father died, and he came under his grandfather's care. his half-uncle, a lawyer, determined to send him to yale university, where many of his relatives had been educated, and paid his way there beginning in 1926. as a freshman, he became disillusioned with chemistry. his mathematics instructor, lester s. hill, coach
1909_births 2005_deaths 20th-century_American_mathematicians 21st-century_American_mathematicians Algebraists Category_theorists Cornell_University_faculty Guggenheim_Fellows Harvard_University_faculty Members_of_the_United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences National_Medal_of_Science_laureates Presidents_of_the_American_Mathematical_Society Presidents_of_the_Mathematical_Association_of_America University_of_Chicago_alumni University_of_Chicago_faculty University_of_GAPttingen_alumni Yale_University_alumni