Personal
Martin David Kruskal was born in New York City and grew up in New Rochelle. He was generally known as Martin to the world and David to his family. His father, Joseph B. Kruskal, Sr., was a successful fur wholesaler. His mother, Lillian Rose Vorhaus Kruskal Oppenheimer, became a noted promoter of the art of origami during the early era of television and founded the Origami Center of America in New York City, which later became OrigamiUSA. He was one of five children. His two brothers, both eminent mathematicians, were Joseph Kruskal (1928-2010; discoverer of multidimensional scaling, the Kruskal tree theorem, and Kruskal's algorithm) and William Kruskal (1919–2005; discoverer of the Kruskal–Wallis test).
Martin Kruskal was married to Laura Kruskal, his wife of 56 years. Laura is well known as a lecturer and writer about origami and originator of many new models. Martin, who had a great love of games, puzzles, and word play of all kinds, also invented several quite unusual origami models including an envelope for sending secret messages (anyone who unfolded the envelope to read the message would have great difficulty refolding it to conceal the deed).
Martin and Laura traveled extensively to scientific meetings and to visit Martin’s many scientific collaborators. Laura used to call Martin "my ticket to the world." Wherever they went, Martin would be hard at work and Laura would often keep busy teaching origami workshops in schools and institutions for elderly people and people with disabilities. Martin and Laura had a great love of traveling and hiking.
Their three children are Karen, Kerry, and Clyde, who are known respectively as an attorney, an author of children’s books, and a mathematician.
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