Today I attended the memorial service for my late colleague Robert Meyers, who passed away last week.
His philosophical writing addressed epistemology and pragmatism, among other things. His work on Peirce and James contains insights that informed my own work.
When I interviewed for the job here at Albany, I had breakfast with another of the faculty on the morning before my flight back to Maine. Robert met us in the parking lot to give me copies of several papers that we’d discussed, and he said he hoped to be seeing me in the Fall.1 I had to wait for the department’s decision to make me an offer, of course, but it was a welcome positive sign.
Since retiring in 2013 he had taken up wood carving. He was especially good at expressive faces. The family encouraged people at the memorial service to take a piece or two as reminders of him, and I took this hobbit and dragon. They don’t seem to have been his usual subjects, but they go nicely together on a shelf in my office.
![A carved wooden dragon and hobbit, sitting on a bookshelf in front of some philosophy books.](https://i0.wp.com/www.fecundity.com/nfw/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240816meyers-carvings.jpg?resize=640%2C514&ssl=1)