Raymond M. Smullyan *59

Raymond Smullyan, a mathematician, logician, and professor emeritus of philosophy at Lehman College and the Graduate Center at CUNY, died Feb. 6, 2017, at the age of 97.

After a peripatetic and eclectic education (whereby he studied mathematics and logic on his own), Smullyan graduated from the University of Chicago in 1955. In 1959, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton. During his career, he taught at Princeton, Yeshiva, Lehman, and Indiana, where he was the Oscar Ewing professor of philosophy.

According to his bylined obituary in The New York Times, Smullyan’s “greatest legacy may be the devilishly clever logic puzzles that he devised.” In one of his numerous books, The Lady or The Tiger? And Other Logic Puzzles (1982), he wrote that Euclid’s Elements would have been more popular if it was presented as a puzzle book.

In a 2008 published interview, Smullyan said he taught students as much as possible but required from them as little as possible. He found that many students worked harder in his course than in any other.

He is survived by a stepson; six step-grandchildren; and 16 step-great-grandchildren. His second wife, Blanche, died in 2006. His first marriage ended in divorce.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.