campus memorial for Steve Everhart today

In late June we lost our friend STEVE EVERHART, Associate Dean of the School of Business, in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. He had been invited as a consultant by one of the Iraqi universities, which wanted to reform its business curriculum. I had the chance to see Steve at a party shortly before his departure for the airport, and he seemed visibly worried, but also excited by the opportunity. As I was discussing with the Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences (also a philosophy professor) if either of us had been asked to go to Iraq following a request to help reform the philosophy curriculum, then of course we would have done it. (Not now, however.)

Many people I’ve spoken with on campus have reported the same reaction to the news, which reached most of us in an email from the President. It was similar to the sensation of being punched in the gut, and took most of us a number of days to get over.

That said, there’s never been a genuine moment of mourning, for the simple reason that I still expect to see Steve walking across campus. Instead, we’ll be having a campus memorial for Steve today. How clearly I remember his voice, his demeanor, his sense of humor.