C. Wade Savage

C. Wade Savage

September 1, 1932 – November 16, 2020
Longtime professor of philosophy of science at the University of Minnesota, C. Wade Savage died in Bloomington on November 16, 2020 at the age of 88, from Alzheimer’s and Covid-19. Born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Wade spent summers on his beloved grandfather’s farm in Gordo, where he learned to pick cotton by hand. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in chemistry, then earned a PhD in philosophy from Cornell under the tutelage of Norman Malcolm. After teaching at SUNY Binghamton and UCLA, where he was active in the movement against the war in Vietnam, he joined the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science in 1971. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the Center’s Director. In later years he also became a highly active member of the UMN Center for Cognitive Sciences. His publications include The Measurement of Sensation: A Critique of Perceptual Psychophysics (1970), and numerous edited volumes in the series Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. An avid singer, he was a longtime chorus member in the Bach Society of Minnesota and at Grace University Lutheran Church. He was preceded in death by daughters Laurie and Michele, and is survived by his wife, Diane, of Minneapolis; sons, Kirk (Pittsburgh) and Stephen (Brooklyn), and 13 grandchildren. Gifts may go to the Alzheimer’s Association. (Published in the Star Tribune on November 17, 2020)