Solitar competed on the mathematics team of
Brooklyn Technical High School with his future co-author Abe Karrass, one year ahead of him in school. He graduated from
Brooklyn College in 1953 (with the assistance of tutoring from Karrass, who went to
New York University) and went to
Princeton University for graduate study in mathematics. However, his intended mentor there,
Emil Artin, was no longer interested in
group theory, so he left with a master's degree and earned his doctorate from
New York University instead, in 1958, under the supervision of
Wilhelm Magnus. After finishing his studies, he joined the faculty of
Adelphi University in 1959, and Karrass soon joined him there as a doctoral student, earning a Ph.D. under Solitar's supervision in 1961; this was the first Ph.D. awarded at Adelphi. Karrass remained on the faculty with Solitar, where they founded a summer institute for high school mathematics teachers. Solitar moved to
Polytechnic University in 1967, and then (as department chair) to
York University in 1968, along with Karrass. Solitar married J. Francien Hageman, a
Dutch woman, in 1976. He died of a heart attack on April 28, 2008. ==Selected publications==