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Kingsley Blake Price |
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Kingsley Blake Price, a retired philosophy professor who taught at the Johns Hopkins University for more than three decades, died Oct. 27 of multiple organ failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 92.
Born in Salem, Ind., the son of a Baptist minister and homemaker, he later moved with his family to Santa Rosa, Calif., until finally settling in Berkeley, Calif.
He was 3¿ years old when he fell ill with scarlet fever, which left him blind. As a boy, he was encouraged by his parents, who sent him to a boarding school to learn Braille, to do things for himself.
He was a graduate of University High School in Berkeley, and earned his bachelor's degree with the highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1938.
After earning his bachelor's degree, he considered seeking a career as a concert pianist but decided to pursue an academic career in philosophy.
Dr. Price received his master's degree and doctorate from Berkeley in 1942 and 1946, respectively. His dissertation, colleagues said, was on John Locke's theory of knowledge.
Before coming to Hopkins as an assistant professor of philosophy and education in 1953, he taught at the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Nevada at Reno and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y.
"His appointment at Johns Hopkins called for him to do half his teaching in philosophy and half in education," said his longtime colleague and friend, Stephen F. Barker.
"Some years later, the department of education was eliminated from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and he became a full-time member of the department of philosophy, until his retirement in 1986," Dr. Barker said.
"He was a very gifted guy, and I'll always remember how independently he carried on," Dr. Barker, recalled.
Forest W. Hansen, a retired philosophy professor who now lives in Easton, had been a graduate student of Dr. Price's at Hopkins.
"We used to marvel at how he lived with his blindness and accomplished what he did. He continued turning out papers. He had a very good memory and was a sharp thinker," said Dr. Hansen.
"We used to watch him check his mailbox. He'd walk along a set of mailboxes while running his hand. And then he'd stop, bend down, and then thrust his key into it and, presto, get his mail," he said.
"Kingsley is really mourned by his former graduate students because many of them kept up a friendship with him long after leaving Hopkins. They stayed close," he said.
Dr. Barker said that his friend "lived alone throughout his adult life" and had "traveled extensively abroad, usually going alone."
He added that Dr. Price "hired readers, mostly students, to enable him to deal with his professional work and his personal business."
J. David Blankenship, who taught philosophy at the State University of New York at New Paltz until retiring several years ago, became acquainted with Dr. Price at Hopkins in the early 1960s.
"Kingsley has been one of my best friends for 40 years. He was a marvelous man with an exceptionally brilliant mind, and as a teacher was very rigorous but fair," recalled Dr. Blankenship.
"He was a man who had a wide range of knowledge. He was very learned in literature, art and music, which he coupled with a prodigious memory, and was very centered morally," he said.
Dr. Blankenship said that Dr. Price never relied on a seeing-eye dog or carried a cane.
Born in Salem, Ind., the son of a Baptist minister and homemaker, he later moved with his family to Santa Rosa, Calif., until finally settling in Berkeley, Calif.
He was 3¿ years old when he fell ill with scarlet fever, which left him blind. As a boy, he was encouraged by his parents, who sent him to a boarding school to learn Braille, to do things for himself.
He was a graduate of University High School in Berkeley, and earned his bachelor's degree with the highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1938.
After earning his bachelor's degree, he considered seeking a career as a concert pianist but decided to pursue an academic career in philosophy.
Dr. Price received his master's degree and doctorate from Berkeley in 1942 and 1946, respectively. His dissertation, colleagues said, was on John Locke's theory of knowledge.
Before coming to Hopkins as an assistant professor of philosophy and education in 1953, he taught at the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Nevada at Reno and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y.
"His appointment at Johns Hopkins called for him to do half his teaching in philosophy and half in education," said his longtime colleague and friend, Stephen F. Barker.
"Some years later, the department of education was eliminated from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and he became a full-time member of the department of philosophy, until his retirement in 1986," Dr. Barker said.
"He was a very gifted guy, and I'll always remember how independently he carried on," Dr. Barker, recalled.
Forest W. Hansen, a retired philosophy professor who now lives in Easton, had been a graduate student of Dr. Price's at Hopkins.
"We used to marvel at how he lived with his blindness and accomplished what he did. He continued turning out papers. He had a very good memory and was a sharp thinker," said Dr. Hansen.
"We used to watch him check his mailbox. He'd walk along a set of mailboxes while running his hand. And then he'd stop, bend down, and then thrust his key into it and, presto, get his mail," he said.
"Kingsley is really mourned by his former graduate students because many of them kept up a friendship with him long after leaving Hopkins. They stayed close," he said.
Dr. Barker said that his friend "lived alone throughout his adult life" and had "traveled extensively abroad, usually going alone."
He added that Dr. Price "hired readers, mostly students, to enable him to deal with his professional work and his personal business."
J. David Blankenship, who taught philosophy at the State University of New York at New Paltz until retiring several years ago, became acquainted with Dr. Price at Hopkins in the early 1960s.
"Kingsley has been one of my best friends for 40 years. He was a marvelous man with an exceptionally brilliant mind, and as a teacher was very rigorous but fair," recalled Dr. Blankenship.
"He was a man who had a wide range of knowledge. He was very learned in literature, art and music, which he coupled with a prodigious memory, and was very centered morally," he said.
Dr. Blankenship said that Dr. Price never relied on a seeing-eye dog or carried a cane.
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