Leslie Armour (1931-2014)


Leslie Armour, professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa and research professor at Dominican University College, has died. Professor Armour worked in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, history of early modern philosophy, 19th Century philosophy, Canadian philosophy, and the philosophy of economics. He began his academic career at the University of Montana, and subsequently held positions at CSU Northridge, Waterloo, and Cleveland State. (via Betty Trott)

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Thom Brooks
Thom Brooks
9 years ago

Terrible news. Armour was a great philosopher and great fun. He has an essay – his last? – forthcoming in my book on Ethical Citizenship out this month. A real loss.

Mark
Mark
9 years ago

Prof. Armour was my advisor. He believed in my work on Derrida’s Ethics when others at the University of Ottawa would not allow it to proceed.

Alex Richmond
Alex Richmond
9 years ago

Thank you for the supportive comments. He would be happy to know that he made such a positive impact with his own work and the efforts of his students. I will miss my uncle Leslie very much.
Alex Richmond

Matthew Newland
Matthew Newland
9 years ago

I enjoyed a semester-long seminar with Prof. Armour back in 2011 at the Dominican University College in Ottawa. He then generously gave me a year of his time in order to personally supervise a private study that paved the way for my doctoral thesis (which I am now currently writing). I’m very sorry I won’t be able to thank him for his help and guidance once my work is complete.

Matthew Newland
Matthew Newland
9 years ago

Hello Alex. I was your uncle’s student from Fall 2011 to December 2012 (the whole of 2012 we worked one-on-one on a project that would help prepare my doctoral research). I am grateful to him for his help and encouragement (as well as his pushes when I didn’t work hard enough!). Please pass on my condolences to the rest of your family.

Peter Foy, V-P, Finance and Administration, Dominican University College
Peter Foy, V-P, Finance and Administration, Dominican University College
9 years ago

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Leslie Armour, who was a brilliant man and an esteemed colleague of mine, but most importantly a great friend. I will truly miss our passionate baseball discussions and his companionship. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

Mostafa Faghfoury
Mostafa Faghfoury
9 years ago

It was with great sadness that I heard the loss of my beloved teacher and mentor for the last 36 years.
In the words of a Persian poet: ” from the counts of the eyes one person is missing, alas from the counts of the wisdom really thousands!”.
I knew Leslie from January 1978 when I arrived at the university of Ottawa as a PhD student. I was impressed with his personality and his special relationship he had with his students. Giving confidence and taking them seriously provided them with the courage to express themselves in his presence. I invited him to contribute to the volume I edited for the University of Ottawa ( Analytical Philosophy of Religion in Canada 1982). He kindly accepted and his commentary was included there. We also published an article together in the Southern Journal of Philosophy (Wittgenstein Philosophy and Religious Insight, Spring 1984). I attended with him several philosophical meetings. I went to his weekly lectures after his retirement at Dominican College. The topic of his talk was the notion of “infinity”. On November first 2014, he joined to what he was talking about. I will miss him and Canada will not be the same without him.
Love to Diane and the rest of the family.

Elspeth Richmond
Elspeth Richmond
9 years ago

Leslie was my older brother; brilliant, he was responsible for my life-long love of books and interest in the arts, never ‘talking down’ to me, always wanting the best for me. We will miss him greatly.

Steven L. Mitchell
9 years ago

I had the great good fortune to be taught and mentored by Dr. Armour while at Cleveland State University (1972-1974), during which time I enrolled in several of his sources. He paid me the extraordinary academic and personal compliment of asking me to do research for him as an undergraduate, even though my major was in political science rather than philosophy. In large part, due to his influence, I went on to do graduate work in social and political philosophy at SUNY/Buffalo. Dr. Armour was extremely generous with his time and his counsel. His creativity in the classroom was astonishing: he could speak to the medieval philosophy of William of Champeaux and then shift, if need be, to the latest discoveries in physics and the philosophy of science. His dedication to creating new courses that would attract students to philosophy found him working on numerous course books along with the many ideas for scholarly books that were always reminating in his mind and in various stages of gestation.

I will always be tremendously grateful to Dr. Armour for seeing promise in a young student and encouraging me in my academic pursuits.

Steven L. Mitchell
Vice President
Editor in Chief
Prometheus Books
Amherst, NY