Late last week I received grievous news that Hugh, a professor of philosophy and comparative literature at Stony Brook, passed away after suffering from cancer. Hugh was my undergraduate advisor and championed me getting into the graduate programs of my choice, which turned out to be DePaul University. His impact on me is indelible, and whenever I teach certain figures in Continental philosophy, I think of the courses with him where I first heard their names.

Intellectuals make their impact in different ways: some through books, some through blogs (now), and some through organization. I worked with Hugh as registration coordinator for 12 (!) IAPL conferences [it happened that I got the news as I was packing up stuff in my house, which at the moment was years of IAPL t-shirts Hugh had given me], and there wasn’t a minor detail that Hugh didn’t look after. I made my best…