Introduction to the Collected Works

Abstract

What can one say about Frederick D. Funkle? Revered as perhaps the greatest semi-upper continuous functional analyst who ever lived, his contributions continue to confound us and often contradict one another. His body of work is broad but unnervingly shallow. His writing style is impertinent, presumptuous, and tinged with an undeniable disdain for the very material he studies. His disregard for standard notation and his penchant for starting in the middle of a proof and simultaneously working toward the beginning and end have made it extremely difficult to evaluate the contributions of this iconoclastic individual.