Jay F. Rosenberg

i'll allways remember jay for being one of the many five undefeated jeopardy champions

Our students, my colleagues and I were very fortunate to have Jay with us during his long career at Chapel Hill. He added a great deal to our professional lives. No one loved good conversation more than he did. Even his lively writings reflect that. Anyone lucky enough to participate with him had the rare opportunity to see things in a new and remarkably clear light. He was invariably perceptive, interesting, and entertaining--the consummate professional and generous friend.

Jay recruited me into the Philosophy Department at UNC. We initially bonded over our mutual love of Jeopardy. I arrived in Chapel Hill to find a man of undeniable brilliance and infinite charm. I deeply respected Jay, and I will miss him.

Jay had a clear, powerful, agile and world-class mind and every one of his classes was a tour de force. He would bounce out of class brimming with ideas, having easily deciphered what each student was getting at no matter how inarticulate the question or presentation. In class he would insist that we "learn the terrain" of particular philosophical ideas. Listening to him track down an idea, I would think that this is what philosophy is.

Jay had been teaching at Chapel Hill for only a year when I arrived there as a graduate student. In my first year I had two courses with him, a Proto-Seminar (also led by John Heinz) and a course in Wittgenstein's "Tractatus." Both courses, and especially the latter, were formative intellectual experiences for me, and no doubt for others. Jay was an extraordinarily quick and fertile philosophical intelligence. Rarely have I encountered a mind as agile, as supple, and as astute. As a man...

An excellent teacher, scholar, colleague, and champion of his students. From seminars to colloquia to conventions, he was an intellectual force. May his ideas live on!

I found it very fruitful, though often daunting, to have Jay as a philosophical colleague. His ideas on logic did much to shape mine; and often his booming criticisms echoed in the back of my head as I tried to improve upon my views.
Jay was a courageous and compassionate Department chair. And for the past 40 years a wonderful friend.
Janet remembers how sympathetic Jay was during her bout with breast cancer (1977-78), and that he read and made encouraging comments on the...