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Note: A newspaper article about Thomas, published at the time of his passing provides an excellent outline of his accomplishments.
Thomas Goudge Changed the Face 0f Philosophy Departrnent
PROFESSOR EMERITUS THOMAS Goudge, chair of the philosophy department from 1963 to 1969, died in Toronto June 20 of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 89. Born in Halifax, N.S., in 1910 he attended Dalhousie University, receiving his BA in 1931 and his MA in 1932. He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1937 and after a year at Queen's University, returned to U of T as a lecturer in philosophy in 1938. With the exception of two years' service in the Canadian Navy during the Second World War, he continued to teach here until his retirement in 1976. When Goudge assumed the position as chair of the department in 1963 a period of great expansion in the university and in North America as a whole was under way. At U of T two new colleges, Erindale and Scarborough, were created and the central campus expanded to at least twice its size. As a result many academic appointments had to be made and during his six years as chair he hired 34 new professors to permanent positions, considered a record in the world of academic philosophy. Because most of his appointees were young, "he effectively determined the character of the department into the next century," Professor Mark Thornton, chair of philosophy, wrote in the memorial resolution presented to the faculty council. Those six years were also characterized by great change within the university and the department itself. By the time he left office in 1969 he had steered the department from the autocracy practised by his predecessor Fulton Anderson to what was probably the most democratically governed department in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Thornton said. Professor Emeritus John Slater, a longtime friend and colleague, recalled: "When I succeeded him as chairman in 1969, the department functioned as a group with a chairman and not as a one-man show. To have effected such a change in six years shows a certain greatness of character." As well as being an effective administrator, Thomas was also a dedicated scholar. His book The Thought of C.S. Pierce, published in 1950, continues to be considered an important commentary on Pierce's philosophy, and The Ascent of Life, published in 1961, was awarded the Governor General's Award for academic non-fiction for that year. An active promoter of the profession, he was a founding member and later president (1958 and 1959) of the Charles S. Peirce Society and was one of the founding members of the Canadian Philosophical Association, serving on its board for a numbers of years and as its president in 1964-65.
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