[Memorial Minute, American Philosophical Association]
Garry M. Brodsky (1932-2015)
Garry M. Brodsky, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, died after a brief illness in Providence R.I. on July 2nd, 2015. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he studied in local schools and received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1954. After two years in the U.S. Army (partly spent in Korea), he entered graduate school in philosophy at Yale, receiving his Ph.D. there in 1961. After appointments at William and Mary and at Hobart College, he joined the Philosophy Department at the University of Connecticut in 1963, and rising through the ranks, taught there until his retirement in 1997. During his tenure at Connecticut, he also held visiting appointments in philosophy at the University of Colorado and Wesleyan University.
Garry’s writings, teaching, and philosophical commitments focused principally on pragmatism and on 20th century continental philosophy—reaching back to Nietzsche-- in relation to Anglo-American analytic thought. Unlike philosophers who took sides among the different lines of thought in these areas, Garry, much in the spirit of pragmatism itself, found fruitful affinities among them and emphasized this in his work and the professional discussions he often sought out. In addition to the volume Contemporary Readings in Social and Political Ethics that he co-edited with J.G. Troyer and D.R. Vance, he was the author of numerous articles on the topics mentioned in such journals as the Review of Metaphysics, The Monist, the Journal of Philosophy, and Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society.
Garry was a staunch friend and a valued colleague; he took philosophy seriously as he did the importance of contributing to it. He is survived by his wife, Sara Lee Silberman of Providence, and his daughter by an earlier marriage, Shara Cardon, and grandson, Zeke.
Berel Lang, State University of New York at Albany
For more information, contact: Samuel Wheeler at samuel.wheeler@uconn.edu