R. Daniel Mauldin and Diana Block: Mastering the art, science of marriage

		R. Daniel Mauldin, Regents Professor of mathematics, and Diana Block, director of the UNT Art Galleries, met on a blind date arranged by friends. Together since 1985, they say their creative backgrounds and shared qualities such as dedication to their children and passion for their work help make their marriage successful.oma City bombing site

He's lived and breathed the world of mathematics for 33 years and helped solve the Steinhaus lattice problem, ending a 50-year math mystery. She recently won the Legend Award from the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, honoring those who have advanced visual arts in Texas.

R. Daniel Mauldin, Regents Professor of mathematics, and his wife, Diana Block, director of the UNT Art Galleries, merged their math and art worlds in June 1985. The two see many common themes in their backgrounds, rather than differences.

"In a sense, mathematics is the most abstract of the arts, with the medium being entirely the mind," Mauldin says. "There is a creative side of mathematics that is shared with all the arts. And as hard as it might seem to conceive, one must have a strong passion for this creative aspect in order to do mathematics."

Mauldin and Block met on a blind date arranged by friends and knew immediately they shared qualities such as dedication to their children — between them they have five grown children — and a great passion for their work.

"It is a good thing to be in different fields," says Block, "so that rather than critiquing each other in areas we don't understand, we simply offer support and confidence."

Sally Packard, design core coordinator and assistant professor in the School of Visual Arts, sees them in their down time and spent last New Year's Eve singing karaoke with the couple she describes as "full of life, smart, generous and kind."

"They have great camaraderie," Packard says. "Math and art are both creative pursuits, and I think this links them in terms of lifestyle approach and interests."

Working for the same university, Mauldin and Block say they tend to exchange advice and provide support when needed.

"This has been one of the great things about us, counselors in adversity and fellow celebrants whenever possible," Mauldin says.

Their intertwined lives can create interesting moments, Block says. Mauldin is a consultant for various government agencies, including the Los Alamos National Lab, the Naval Research Center and the Center for Communications Research, an outside job requiring a high level of security. A routine re-investigation of Mauldin's work security clearance with the government, involving background checks and interviews with everyone connected to him, once collided with Block's world of art.

"An FBI agent came to the gallery where I worked," Block says. "He was the classic FBI guy, with a trench coat, and very out of place in that environment. I used to threaten my kids when they were teen-agers that we were being watched by the government."

Mauldin and Block love traveling and share a passion for the New Mexico land where Mauldin proposed, a scene the math professor calls "a wonderful setting full of those fabulous colors that Georgia O'Keefe captured so many times."

"I think we are lucky," Block says. "We think it's a miracle that we ever even met in the first place and that we had the courage to go ahead and marry, putting our crazy lives together."

BY JENNIFER HUBER ucmwri1@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT aims to recruit, retain first-generation college students with $30,000 grant
• UNT to offer PBS' Small Business School online
• John R. Todd named interim associate VP
• Spring 2004 enrollment up 341 students over Spring '03
• UNT to celebrate Black History Month
• UNT to help sponsor Association of Teacher Educators national conference in Dallas
• UNT offers career counseling
• Survivor makes for family fun at Elm Fork
• Funds increase for UNT study abroad scholarships
• UNT assistant professor of English national Creative Writing Fellowship

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