Kaplansky or "Kap" as his friends and colleagues called him was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Polish-Jewish immigrants;[REF][REF] his father worked as a tailor, and his mother ran a grocery and, eventually, a chain of bakeries [REF].
He was professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago from 1945 to 1984, and Chair of the department from 1962 to 1967.