From an old friend...

I remember best two traits about our friend Leslie – his longing for love and his devotion to the search for truth.

The reminiscences of friends and students on this blog amply demonstrate the love that he gave and received. He loved, and was loved by, his sister Renee and his good friends, Freebird, Bruce, and Fernando.

I remember that he adopted a stray cat some years ago. The veterinarian told him that the cat had a feline disease that would be eventually fatal. Leslie chose to keep the cat as long as he could, to give the animal a few months of comfort and happiness, even though he knew that he would grow to love it and that therefore loss and sorrow were inevitable.

But, it is his search for the truth that I think most about now. I saw Leslie on Thanksgiving and when I asked him how his classes were going, he said, “Oh, my classes are wonderful. I love teaching.” Sharing his passion for inquiry with his students brightened his life.

Leslie had been in a philosophy reading group with two friends for over 20 years, and appropriately, it was those friends who found his body when they came to his home for a meeting of the group.

Leslie has now proven the final theorem, unraveled the last syllogism. Whatever is after death, he has encountered, and the encounter left on his face an expression of great peace.

His friends have different beliefs about the afterlife. Some of us may believe that the atoms of his fragile mortal body are even now dispersing into the sweet oblivion of the cosmic dust. Some may believe that his soul is taking its seat on the vast Ferris wheel of reincarnation. While we are left behind like children in line at the county fair, he is carried away from us toward the lights of a new city. Some may believe that he has been welcomed by a loving and forgiving God. Perhaps he has solved there the true nature of universals and can ask Kant a few pointed questions in that inimitable wry voice that we remember so well.

Regardless of these beliefs, we can all take comfort in the indisputable fact that the effects of Leslie’s life continue in the hearts and minds of those gathered here today. He leaves behind friends and a sister whose hearts carry the imprint of his humor and his intelligence and his sadness. His students, whether they become businesspeople or teachers or engineers, carry forward his commitment to the search for truth and the ability to reason critically about the important issues in their lives.
-- Donna