James J. Stoker, a former director of New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, died October 19 in Greenwood, N.Y. He was 87 years old.

Stoker assumed the director position in 1958 when the institute's founder, Richard Courant, retired.

Stoker specialized in using mathematical analysis to determine water flow and flood waves of rivers and large reservoirs. Among his books were Differential Geometry (New York, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1969) and Water Waves (Wiley, 1957).

Stoker received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1927 and 1931, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1936.

William Fields Harrington, a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University for more than 30 years, died October 31 at his home in Baltimore. He was 72 years old.

Harrington is best known for research on collagens, connective...

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