Stephen Cole Craney

Stephen Cole Kleene (January 5, 1909 - January 25, 1994) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. His work on recursion helped lay the foundations of theoretical computer science. His father, Gustav Adolph Kleene, was an economics professor, and his mother, Alice Lena Cole, was a poet.

Klein studied at Amherst College and received a doctorate from Princeton in 1934. His mentor, Alonzo Church, was a well-known logician.

In 1936, he used the lambda calculus to prove that there was no answer to the determination question. He became an instructor in the US Navy during World War II. He was also a naturalist, having discovered new species of butterflies. He also enjoyed traveling and mountaineering.