Wythoff was born in Amsterdam to Anna C. F. Kerkhoven and Abraham Willem Wijthoff,[1] who worked in a sugar refinery.

[2] He studied at the University of Amsterdam, and earned his Ph.D. in 1898 under the supervision of Diederik Korteweg.

[3] Wythoff is known in combinatorial game theory and number theory for his study of Wythoff's game, whose solution involves the Fibonacci numbers.

Willem Abraham Wythoff was the youngest of four children born into the wealthy family of Abraham Willem Wijthoff and Anna Catharina Frederika Kerkhoven.

[6] Media related to Willem Wijthoff at Wikimedia Commons