THE PONTIFICAL JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTEfor studies on marriage and family

at the catholic university of america

OCTOBER 22, 2012

The Pontifical John Paul II Institutefor Studies on Marriage and Family

at the Catholic University of America

is sponsored by

The Knights of Columbus

professor EMERITUS of philosophy

honors

Kenne� L. Schm�z

Kenneth L. Schmitz, Ph.D.

.

Over his many years of study, writing, teaching, and dissertation direction, Kenneth L. Schmitz has contributed profoundly to the intellectual formation of innumerable John Paul II Institute students, as well as students of many other institutions.

Born in 1922 at Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a navigator during the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. At the war’s end, he married Lillian Oriel (née Patterson). They were married for fifty-three years and were blessed with four children, eleven grandchildren, and five great-grandchil-dren. He received his B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1948, his M.A. from the University of Toronto in 1950, his M.S.L. from Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in 1952, and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1953. Among his teachers were such eminent figures as Etienne Gilson (who directed his dissertation), Jacques Maritain, Anton Pegis, and Armand Mauer.

Professor Schmitz was a Fellow of Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has also held positions at Loyola University of Los Angeles, Marquette University, Indiana University, and The Catholic University of America. Teaching such courses as The Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla, Modernity and Humanism, Christian Personalism, and Causality and Retrieval of Interiority, he has served as professor of philosophy at the John Paul II Institute since 1992.

Past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (1977-78), the Metaphysical Society of America (1979-80), and the Hegel Society of America (1974-76), he was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1991. Among his numerous honors and awards is the Spellman-Aquinas Medal from the American Catholic Philosophical Associ-ation (1991) and the McGivney Medal (1992). He holds honorary doctor-ates from Benedictine College, The Catholic University of America, and Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Professor Schmitz has lectured and published widely. His illustrious career, spanning six decades, has focused on bringing together the ancient concern for substance and being and the modern emphasis on the subject, relation, and interiority. His well-known 1982 Aquinas Lecture, entitled The Gift: Creation (Marquette University Press), which was also translated into German (Johannes Verlag, 1995), has been especially influential on the work of the faculty and students of the Institute. Similarly, his widely-known 1991 McGivney Lectures, At the Center of the Human Drama: The Philosophy of Karol Wojtyła/Pope John Paul II (The Catholic University of America Press), also translated into Polish, constitute an important contribution not only to scholarship on the thought of Blessed John Paul II, but to the work of the Institute as well. Professor Schmitz’s other books include his Gilbert Ryle Lectures at Trent University, The Recovery of Wonder: The New Freedom and the Asceticism of Power (McGill-Queen's Press, 2005). He also published a collec-tion of essays, The Texture of Being: Essays in First Philosophy (The Catholic University of America Press, 2007) and Person and Psyche (The Institute for the Psychological Sciences Press, 2009). In addition, Professor Schmitz has authored well over a hundred articles and chapters on subjects ranging from classical metaphysics to modern personalism and their postmodern critics. His influence on several generations of students and colleagues found partial expression in a Festschrift volume published in 2011, Person, Being, and History: Essays in Honor of Kenneth L. Schmitz (The Catholic University of America Press).

In recognition of his profound contribution to the Catholic intellectual tradition and of his years of service to the students of the Institute, it is with deep gratitude and great esteem that the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America confers upon Kenneth L. Schmitz the title Emeritus Professor of Philosophy.