Today's Boston Globe (17 Oct 1996) had the following obituary.

LARS V. AHLFORS, mathematician who won first Fields Medal; 89

        by Tom Long GLOBE STAFF

    Lars Valerian Ahlfors, a former Harvard mathematician and the 
first recient of the Fields Medal in mathematics, died of pneumonia
Friday in Pittsfield, where he lived in retirement. He was 89.
    An expert on complex analysis, a fundamental subject with 
applications to physics and number theory, Mr. Ahlfors published 
a text on the subject in 1953 that is still in wide use today.
    In 1936 he won the first Fields Medal, which is awarded every 
four years by the International Mathematics Society and is considered
by many to be the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
     A native of Helsinki, he was a mathematics professor at 
Harvard University from 1946 until his retirement in 1977.
     In the introduction to his collected papers, published in 
1982, he wrote "As a child I was fascinated by mathematics without
understanding what it was about, but I was by no means a child prodigy.
As a matter of fact, I had no access to any mathematical literature
except in the highest grades. The high school curriculum did not include
any calculus, but I finally managed to learn some on my own, thanks to
clandestine visits to my father's engineering library."
     He attended Helsinki University, where he studied mathematics
under Rolf Nevanlinna. He followed Nevanlinna to the Federal 
Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, where he first earned international
renown for his work.
     He credited Nevanlinna and another teacher, George Polya, 
for their "considerable help" in his research and said he tried 
to repay his debt to his mentors by never allowing his name to 
appear as coauthor of his students' original research.
     He taught at Harvard from 1935 until 1938, when he became 
homesick for Finland. He taught in Helsinki and Zurich, before 
returning to Harvard in 1946.
      He leaves his wife, Erna (Lehnert); three daughters, Cynthia
Edwards of Jumeauville, France, Vanessa Gruen of Darien, 
Conn., and Old Chatham, N.&., and Caroline Mouris of Nassau, 
N.Y.; a brother Axel of Torup, Sweden, a sister, Unga Appelqvist 
of Helsinki; 9 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
       A memorial service is being planned.

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