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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,101
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In today's Globe and Mail, there's a (late) obituary for one of Gord's partner's in the barbershop quartet he was in during high school, Bill Hughes.
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Husband, father, singer, instrument repair expert, teacher, philosopher. Born Oct. 22, 1936, in Sarnia, Ont. Died Aug. 19, in New Denver, B.C., of cancer, aged 66.
Bill Hughes was a student at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and then did graduate work in England, receiving a master's degree from the London School of Economics, and a doctorate from University College London. On returning to Canada in 1965, Bill got a job at the brand new University of Guelph, and he was one of the founding members of its philosophy department. He taught there until he retired in 1997.
Bill and Daphne (his wife of 42 years) have four children, and the family has always been united around a deep love of music. Bill sang in various choirs, including the Guelph Chamber Choir and, most recently in his new home in New Denver, B.C., as a member of the Valhalla Choral Society.
He was also an enthusiastic amateur on the double bass, and for several years ran a string instrument repair shop to serve students of the Suzuki String School of Guelph. One of his proudest memories, however, was singing in a barbershop quartet, along with Gordon Lightfoot, when in high school.
Bill Hughes's philosophical interest and expertise were in social and ethical philosophy. In more recent years, he had become interested in techniques for teaching informal logic, and wrote course material, especially for distance education, turning his work eventually into a textbook. This is now going into its fourth edition. Bill served as department chair, and if there was a university committee on which Bill did not at some time sit, it has not yet been discovered.
He was one of those people known to everyone on campus, and to whom all had at one point or another turned for advice or help.
For this was the main point about Bill Hughes. At one level, he was a rather ordinary man. At another level, he was a most extraordinary man, the rare example of someone who is truly good. His whole life was given to others -- to his family, to his students, to his colleagues, and to anyone else whom he met. Quakers speak of the "inner light," or "that of God in every person."
Although he had no religious beliefs, Bill saw worth in everyone he knew, and gave unstintingly of his time and effort to all, whether this was a student late in the afternoon who needed some guidance on a project, or a colleague who needed help with an idea or a class, or a child whose cello was not sounding quite right and perhaps needed a new string or bridge.
Bill was not perfect. He made mistakes. But, although Bill may not have believed in heaven, if such there be, he has certainly earned his place. I am sure that God has already nabbed Bill for several important committees. ("Criteria for promotion up the order of angels.") At the end of the day, Bill will be sitting in the divine faculty club, Jeremy Bentham, Doubting Thomas (the patron saint of philosophers), and one or two other slightly non-respectable folk around him, pints of Wellington County -- the nectar of the gods -- in hand.
And now for a good natter: "Tell me, is the ontological argument really valid?"
Michael Ruse was Bill's colleague for nearly 40 years.
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Sounds like a wonderful person.
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I feel like writing to Gordon to convey my condolences and to maybe somehow drop a line or two to make him feel better. I'm not sure how I'd do that but one can always try. It's really sad that not only this occurs when he's going through so much already but only 24 or 25 days until his birthday too. I guess by comparison (with the exception of his survival and the tribute CD) Gord's having a worse 2003 than I have. I think I'll definetly stop complaining about my year and wish Gordon and all of us a better 2004. Bye now.
