By Tommy Bourgeois
This entry is on the light side. I trust you’re saving stories of your recent adventures, milestones, encounters with classmates, etc., to share at our 50th reunion, scheduled for next May 29 through June 1. As of my filing date in early September, our home base is still TBD. Stay tuned, and you may want to check in periodically at www.alumni.yale.edu/reunions.
A few issues ago I reported that Robert Gooding-Williams (’82PhD, philosophy) was awarded one of four 2023 Wilbur Lucius Cross Medals, the highest honor conferred by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association, to recognize his “outstanding work and service.” At the time Robert was still at Columbia, working in the departments of philosophy and African American and African diaspora studies. In July he returned to Yale as Brooks and Suzanne Regan Professor of Philosophy. On August 28, Yale Today published an article titled “Pioneering Scholar Returns to Yale to Foster a New Generation of Students.” Here are a few of his reflections and observations:
“This is a late career move for me, but given that I had a connection to Yale, given that Yale formed me intellectually more than any other institution with which I’ve been affiliated, it’s nice to be able to come back and to contribute to Yale’s institutional formation.”
“Yale has an absolutely terrific philosophy department. It also has a terrific African American studies department, so one of the things I’m hoping to do is to create a combined PhD program for folks who want to do a joint PhD in philosophy and African American studies.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that what the late Charles Mills called ‘the whiteness of philosophy’—in terms of not only who’s teaching philosophy, but what gets taught—is a thing of the past. But I would say that things are different. We’re at a point now where it’s important to create sustained institutional space that supports and promotes that work, and I think Yale has a great role to play.”
“I think the first time I read Du Bois in college was a in course team-taught by a couple of folks, including the philosopher Ben Ward, who had been a Yale philosophy PhD student. There was also a junior faculty teacher named D. W. Crofts, and that was the first time I read Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction. That course was important to me because it was probably the one course that really exemplified the possibility of doing work at the intersection of philosophy and Black studies.”
“I love teaching undergraduates, especially in small settings. Yale undergrads are fabulous.”
Welcome home, Robert, and I hope to see you at the class table in Alumni Village before the Princeton game on November 16!
I’m sad to share the following obituary notice, which appeared in the May 7 edition of the Boston Globe:
“Deborah G. Roher, of New Bedford, an attorney and progressive activist, whose influence was felt across civic, political, labor, environmental, and religious organizations in southeastern Massachusetts for more than 35 years, has died at 70. The cause was cancer.
“For more than 30 years, Deb Roher ran a Fall River law practice, after first arriving in Massachusetts in 1987, as an attorney with the Southern Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation. More recently, she also worked for Greater Boston Legal Services.
“Deb was a founding member of the Coalition for Social Justice. Her professional memberships included the National Lawyers Guild and National Association of Consumer Advocates. While in legal services, she was a member of the National Association of Legal Services Workers, now UAW Local 2320.
“Deborah Gwen Roher was born in Ellenville, New York, and lived in Bethesda, Maryland, and White Plains, New York, before attending Yale University and the Antioch School of Law in Washington, DC. Her career began as an attorney with Kentucky Legal Services in Ashland, Kentucky, where she practiced until coming to Massachusetts.
“She is survived by her mother, Florence Roher of White Plains, New York; and brothers Richard (Susan) of White Plains and Torin (Lisa) of Bellevue, Washington. Donations in her memory may be made to the Coalition for Social Justice, New Bedford, Massachusetts; Southeast Community Foundation, New Bedford; the American Civil Liberties Union, New York, New York; or Bend the Arc Jewish Action, New York.”
I send condolences to Deb’s family and friends, and I note with admiration her lifelong devotion to service.
It’s time to plan for reunion! As always, I welcome your news