Agnew was born in Poland, Ohio, and did his undergraduate studies at Allegheny College.
After completing a master's degree at Iowa State College he moved to Cornell University, where he received a Ph.D. in 1930.
[1][2] His research concerned summability of series; he also wrote textbooks on calculus and differential equations.
The problem is deceptive for its paucity of information, and requires several common sense assumptions such as the instantaneous velocity of the plow is proportional to the depth of snow immediately in front of it, and there is no maximum or limiting velocity.
[4] His textbook on differential equations also contains a rather humorous note on the difficulty of converting a Laplace equation directly from Rectangular (Cartesian) coordinates to Spherical coordinates: Doing this can make you forget your troubles the next time you have a toothache at an airport and are informed that your plane is 3 hours late.