In Memoriam: Ruth Barcan Marcus (1921-2012)

Ruth Barcan Marcus, professor emerita of philosophy at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, has died at the age of 90.

Professor Marcus was born in New York City and grew up in The Bronx. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy at New York University and a Ph.D. in philosophy at Yale. She taught at Roosevelt University from 1959 to 1963. In 1964 she was named chair of the philosophy department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After teaching at Northwestern University for three years in the early 1970s, she joined the faculty at Yale in 1973. She retired from teaching in 1992 as the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Philosophy. Dr. Marcus remained on the Yale faculty as a research professor and served as a visiting professor at the University of California at Irvine.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Marcus served as chair of the board of the American Philosophical Association.