Stefan Bernard Herbert Baumrin, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, philosopher, attorney, and businessman passed away Wednesday afternoon.
The son of David and Regina Baumrin, Stefan was raised with his brother, Leonard, in the Bronx. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1952 and from Ohio State University in 1956. He received his PhD in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1960 and received his J.D. degree from Columbia University in 1970, after which he became a member of the New York State Bar.
He was an Assistant Professor of philosophy and chairman of the Delaware Seminar in the Philosophy of Science at University of Delaware from 1961 until 1964 and was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis from 1964 until 1967. In 1967, he became a professor at Lehman College, and in 1973 he became a professor at the City University of New York Graduate School. In 1988, he became a Professor of Medical Ethics at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He continued teaching courses in philosophy at CUNY Grad Center and Mt. Sinai until this past May.
He will be missed by the many students, professors, friends, and family members who enjoyed the gift of his generosity, vitality, intellect, love of art and literature, and true friendship. Memorial service was held at Riverside Funeral Home Sunday, Sept. 23. And a graveside service is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 1 pm at the West Tisbury Cemetery in West Tisbury, on the Island he loved dearly.
Stefan was an amazing person and I feel very privileged to have known him for about 30 years. First introduced to him through a TIsbury business colleague, as a very accomplished academic, Stefan had been loaned a small outboard runabout on Tashmoo for a day of pleasure boating. Seemingly out of his academic league on the water, I was asked an hour later to go rescue him and his child from the other side of the lake, from where they had taken refuge at a waterfront neighbor. Stefan was quite humbled as I tried not to poke at his lack of marine skills. He had forgotten to raise the small outboard motor within shallow water, striking the propeller on rocks, shearing the retaining pin. Getting a tow back across from my own small boat now a captive to my lectures, hammering him mercilessly the whole way, Stefan acquired the new title, to go with all his academic titles, “Captain Baumrin.” I will miss reminding him of the day thirty years ago.
Comments are closed.