George S. Boolos ’61

George Boolos, professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT and president of the Assn. for Symbolic Logic, died of cancer May 27, 1996, at his home in Cambridge, Mass., surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues.

Born in NYC, George graduated from Princeton with a degree in mathematics. At Princeton he was a contributor to the Prince as a theater and music critic. Among his roommates and close friends were Ray Chiao, Layton Runkle, and the late Harris Funkenstein. After graduation he went to Oxford U. under a Fulbright, where he earned a bachelor of philosophy degree in 1963. In 1966 he received the first PhD in philosophy ever given by MIT, after which he taught at Columbia for three years, then returning to MIT.

"George Boolos was regarded as one of the greatest philosophical logicians of his generation," said a colleague in MIT's announcement of his death. "An innovator but also an outstandingly effective teacher," said another. George had recently been appointed Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT.

George is survived by his wife, Sally Sedgwick, a philosophy professor at Dartmouth; his mother, Mrs. Stephen Boolos; and a son by a previous marriage, Peter D. We join them in mourning his passing.

The Class of 1961