Wayne Wu

I thought I would share one memory of Barry Stroud from my graduate student days at Berkeley. Jennifer Hornsby was visiting to give a talk, maybe in my second year in graduate school. Her work was a huge inspiration to me when I first started thinking about doing philosophy of action. Somehow, I was invited to dinner with the faculty after Hornby’s talk probably along with a few other students. For a young graduate student, this was an absolutely intimidating and exhilarating gathering. Among Berkeley faculty, Bernard Williams was back on campus that semester and was at dinner as was Davidson, Richard Wollheim, and Barry, all trading stories with Hornsby about what seemed to me a golden age of philosophy in Oxford and elsewhere. I was mesmerized. I also had the good fortune of sitting next to Barry at the edge of that faculty group with the rest of the students (Davidson was to Barry's left, I to his right), and he amiably and easily engaged with the graduate students, putting me completely at ease. I still remember his expounding on the correct consistency of risotto, almost conspiratorially (the rice should jiggle just slightly when you shake the plate). He was, of course, an exceptional philosopher and teacher, but what I remember distinctly is his easygoing friendliness that evening. It made me feel like I belonged. I’m so sorry to not have seen in in many years, and even more sorry to hear of his passing.