Steven K. Strange
(1950-2009)

Steven K. Strange, Associate Professor of Philosophy and member of the Emory University faculty since 1990, died Wednesday, October 28, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 59, after suffering from cancer for several months. Steve was a well known scholar in the field of ancient Greek philosophy, especially among students of Neoplatonism. He had a prodigious mind and gave intensely of his knowledge to his students, not only in his classes, but also in many reading groups and informal settings. He will be sorely missed.

A proud native of Texas, Steve earned his Ph.D. in 1981 at the University of Texas, in Austin, through the Joint Classics-Philosophy Graduate Program in Ancient Philosophy. He subsequently taught at Harvard University and at the University of Pittsburgh. He had also held visiting appointments at Princeton and at Ohio State University.

Steve authored the authoritative edition of Porphyry’s On Aristotle, Categories (Duckworth and Cornell University Press, 1992), co-edited a work on one of his favorite subjects, Stoicism, with Jack Zupko, Stoicism: Traditions and Transformations (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and was widely recognized for the quality of his many articles on Hellenistic philosophy, essays on Plotinus, Proclus, the Stoics, and Plato (especially his article on the “two causes” in the Timaeus, which has been included in influential anthologies).

Steve’s hunger for learning and for life carried over into his friendships and political commitments. A sly smile and keen sense of humor always accompanied his cutting criticisms of political folly, aimed mostly at conservatives. He understood intricate details of the politics of nearly every country in the world, and was a voracious reader of blogs and websites, when he was not studying Greek texts.

Steve is survived by his wife, Irene McMorland, his children, Alexander and Flora, brother, George, and stepson, Gabriel.