Deceased October 28, 2013
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In Memory
Bob Cornish left us peaceably and painlessly on Oct. 28, 2013, a few months after his 84th birthday. I’ve known Bob since our joint middle school years. At our first encounter, he challenged me: “I’ll bet you don’t know the difference between rebut and refute.” Indeed, I didn’t. Bob continued dancing intellectual rings around me from that day until his departure. He was easily the best-read person I’ve known. I may write books, but he read them, and I’m coming to think that’s a higher calling.
He majored in philosophy at Amherst under Sterling Lamphrect, parsed French existentialism at Columbia and taught the subject at North Carolina State University before it became an athletic power. Bob lived philosophy for the entirety of his life. Not the least of his attainments was marrying Mary Jean Huntington, who created a career finding deadbeat dads and making them pay up, hence no lack of fascinating tales at the Cornish hearthside. It was worth visiting Southport just for that.
Bob was one of the last of the true WASPs, with a secure sense of who and what he was, undergirded by a respect for heritage and history. We’re not making them anymore, and that’s a cause for regret.
Andrew Hacker ’51