once he received his ph.d. in 1949, richard b. mather was hired as a professor at the university of minnesota, where he founded the chinese program and developed its courses. professor mather taught full-time at the university of minnesota until he was forced to retire in 1984 because of a university policy that required professors to retire at age 70. however, because of his specialized wealth of knowledge in classical chinese, especially in the chinese six dynasties period (220-589), he was allowed to teach part-time for several years after that and do directed studies for advanced students in chinese.