In memoriam: Michael Perloff

Warm, calm, humorous and understanding are just a few of the words used by co-workers and… Warm, calm, humorous and understanding are just a few of the words used by co-workers and students to describe Michael Perloff.

Perloff was a lecturer and assistant department chair in the philosophy department until his death from natural causes on Nov. 19. This week, his co-workers remembered him as an intricate part of the philosophy department, and his students recalled him as “a great guy.”

Mark Wilson, the chair of the philosophy department, said he did not work with Perloff for very long, but appreciated the time they spent together.

As assistant chair, Perloff helped Wilson plan courses and the undergraduate curriculum and did “a great job at it,” Wilson said.

“He really did all the hard work around the department,” Wilson said. “He did all the hard lifting and left the rest of us to just focus on our research.”

The role Perloff played would be pivotal in any university department, Wilson said.

But Perloff often went beyond the traditional responsibilities of professorship — last year he threw a party for graduating seniors in the philosophy department, Wilson said.

Nuel Belnap, a co-worker and close friend of Perloff’s for more than 20 years, said that when Perloff became the assistant chair of the department, he never acted like an official or a higher-up.

Belnap said that Mickey, as Perloff was called by his close friends, “stepped up to the plate when no one else wanted the job and has since made a big difference in the department.”

Belnap and Perloff never argued about anything, even while co-writing a book called “Facing the Future.”

The pair managed to have fun throughout the entire writing process, Belnap said, despite the extensive research and other work.

Perloff’s kind nature often showed during the book-writing process. When the two were writing articles for their book, the sources they came across often used examples of murder to stress points in philosophy. Belnap said that Perloff refused to use killing to illustrate such points, and instead used books such as Moby Dick and the Three Musketeers to make his arguments.

Belnap described Perloff as a “man of many parts.” He grew up in New York and once worked backstage at a theater before running a factory in New England. Perloff also loved to travel and was planning on traveling to New Zealand.

Belnap said he often called on Perloff to talk about problems in his personal life and said he was always there when he needed him.

“He was always calm and always had a way of fixing things,” Belnap said.

Wilson also attested to his calmness.

“He was somehow always calm, unlike most of us,” Wilson said. “He was just good at sorting out problems.”

David DeLorenzo, a political science major who took Perloff’s Introduction to Logic class, said Perloff helped him with his problem of making it through Logic.

DeLorenzo said Perloff made the class enjoyable and was very casual about the intricate concepts discussed in the class, usually getting laughs out of his students in each class.

“He made it nonthreatening, which is very hard to do,” DeLorenzo said.

Even though DeLorenzo had Perloff as a professor two years ago, he remembered him as “an easy going kind of guy” who was very light-hearted, understanding and a huge Steelers fan.

“Logic is something many students take for a general education requirement, and he made it enjoyable by putting humor in it,” Wilson said.

Belnap said Perloff really cared about his students, just as they really cared about him.

“He had a magic way of making sure all of his graduate students were supported,” Belnap said, by ensuring outside funding, by serving as teaching assistants, or through fellowships.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do without him,” Wilson said. “He played such a major role in keeping the department running smoothly from one year to the next.”