Earl Alexander Coddington (1920–1991) was an American mathematician and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and an author whose textbook on differential equations, written jointly with Norman Levinson is considered a classic and is used in universities all over the world.
Others who arrived about that time that also helped to build the department were Raymond Redheffer, Ernst Straus, Robert Steinberg, Richard Arens, and Philip Curtis.
[7] He was also a leader of the Citizens for California Higher Education the chair of the American Association of University Professors for the campus.
He organized against Governor Ronald Reagan's plan to reduce spending to universities and increase tuition.
His textbook on differential equations written with Levinson (colloquially referred to as Coddington–Levinson) is now considered a classic and is used in universities all over the world.