Arlington M Fink passed on April 6, 2026, at the age of 93; born December 15, 1932, in Delmont, Arlington resided in Ames, Iowa.
A.M. Fink was born in his German-Russian grandparents’ home in Delmont, South Dakota. The youngest in a deeply religious family, he got to sit on his father’s lap as his father read from the German Bible every morning. In this intimate time he learned to read German script before dealing with English in a one-room school at age six. Being unsuited to farming because of hay fever, A.M. attended Armour High School and Wartburg College, a trusted German Lutheran institution in distant Iowa. His parents paid his tuition, but he had a medley of odd jobs for pocket money at Wartburg. Mopping the gymnasium floor, he taught himself to balance a mop on his chin. Slotting mail in student mailboxes, he inserted original poetry along with the mail. Setting up chairs and staying for concerts, he fell in love with classical music.
Although the Fink family was nested in a German-speaking enclave in South Dakota, there was an ambient measure of anti-German sentiment that the family tended to ignore—until the county’s Selective Service drafted him during his junior year at Wartburg. Never one to rage at the world, A.M. took advantage of his exposure to different kinds of people and places while in the Army, learning how to survey and using his leaves to explore the surroundings. He was a more mature and centered student when he returned to graduate from Wartburg in 1956 and enter Iowa State as a graduate student in mathematics. While never friendless, he was more of a nerd than a mixer, completing the Iowa State PhD in three years.
In 1967 A.M. returned to the Iowa State Mathematics Department after a detour through Princeton, Virginia and Nebraska, where he and Deborah married. His first mathematics publication was in game theory, a course he might have pursued with access to that network of research. Instead, with a strategic boost from Iowa State’s George Seifert, A.M. devoted most of his career to mathematical analysis, differential equations, inequalities, and almost periodic functions. His vita lists four books and 106 other publications. While maintaining his center of gravity at Iowa State, he took leaves for visiting positions, research stints and conferences across the U.S. and around the world. Toward the end of active scholarship, he returned to game theory, as his early fair and envy free method of division of assets emerged and was of use to judges, mediators and lawyers as well as mathematicians.
Music grounded A.M.’s life, although he never learned to read notes. In Ames he sang with Ames Choral Society and served on the boards of Ames Town & Gown Chamber Music and Central Iowa Symphony. Both of his sons became accomplished amateur musicians.
Growing up on a farm, A.M. knew how to hammer, fix and improvise. As an adult, he had a workshop where he made wooden tables, beds, desks, file cabinets and bookcases for family and friends. Working with wood while listening to classical music was a source of pleasure and pride.
Always a profoundly spiritual person, A.M. shifted readily into Quakerism after marriage. He served stints as clerk and treasurer of Ames Friends Meeting. Nationally he served on boards of Friends World Committee for Consultation and Friends Publishing Corporation. With Deborah, he attended Iowa and national gatherings of the American Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Friends General Conference. He was a stalwart of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative).
Surviving the giant hole of his passing are his wife Deborah Fink, sons George Finklang and Philip Fink, George’s wife Julie Finklang, and grandchildren Joseph Finklang and Amy Finklang.
All obituary information has been taken from the funeral home, newspaper or other online resource.
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