January 19 will be the 93rd birthday of the late Donald P. Shiley, whose $12 million gift made possible the renovation of the University’s engineering building, renamed in his honor as Shiley Hall.
A later $8 million gift from the Shileys resulted in the renaming of the engineering program as the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering. While the generosity of Mr. Shiley and his wife, University regent Darlene Shiley, has played a huge part in furthering the University’s mission, the Shileys have long been known as philanthropists and friends of higher education around the country. Donald Shiley passed away on July 31, 2010.
In honor of Donald Shiley’s birthday, engineering professor Aziz Inan has looked into how the numbers add up:
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If Donald Shiley’s birth year of 1920 is split as 19 and 20, the reverse of the sum of these two numbers equals his new age of 93.
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If numbers 1 to 26 are assigned to letters of the English alphabet as A = 1, B = 2, etc., the letters of “Donald” and “Shiley” each add up to 50 and 78 and their sum is 128. Note that double the reverse of 93 yields 78 (“Shiley”)! Also, the divisors of 93 (which are 1, 3, 31, and 93) add up to 128 (that is, “Donald Shiley”). In addition, 93 = 3 x 31 where the difference of these two primes equals the difference of “Donald” and “Shiley.”
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Donald Shiley’s full birth dates in all years in the 21st century (except year 2100) and year 2000 expressed as 011920AB (where digits A and B can each take any values between 0 and 9) possess a unique property. How? The middle four digits always equals 1920 (his birth year).
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Mr. Shiley’s 99th birthday expressed as 01192019 will be very special. Why? If the places of numbers “20” and “19” on its right side are switched, what comes out? (Answer: 01191920!)
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Donald’s 128th birthday to occur in 2048 will be unique. Why? First, 128 represents “Donald Shiley.” Second, the number 128 equals 2^7 and 2048 is 2^11! (Indeed, 2048 will mark the highestpower year to occur.) Third, 1920 equals 128 times 15 where 15 is (2^3 + 2^2 + 2^1 + 2^0)!
Inan has worked out other special notable numbers in honor of Mr. Shiley’s birthday, available at http://tinyurl.com/a89qohl.