WOODBRIDGE RILEY
1869 - 1933
Professor Woodbridge Riley held over many years a
unique and distinguished position in the professions
of Philosophy and Education. Both as a scholar and
as a professor of Philosophy his work was character-
ized by a lively and vigorous interest in intellec-
tual freedom. In much of his writing, and always in
his teaching, Professor Riley reflected the wide-
spread tendency to embody the abstract truth in terms
of concrete experience. Though his contributions to
philosophical letters were many and varied, his work
in the field of early American philosophical thought,
as appeared in the volumes, "American Philosophy",
1907, and "American Thought - From Puritanism to
Pragmatism", 1915, represents the first and most
authoritative work in this field. In addition to
his more strictly scientific writings, he devoted
much time in his later years to the task of writing
against what he considered harmful superstitions in
the intellectual and moral world. As a teacher of
Philosophy, Professor Riley offered courses which
gave the historical approach to philosophical pro-
blems. His terse epigrammatic style, human sympathy,
and lively wit served to make him always an effective
teacher, and an able controversialist in the world of
ideas.
Professor Riley received his university education at
Yale University from which he received the A.B.,A.M.,
and Ph.D. degrees. He was a research scholar at Johns
Hopkins University, a teaching member of the faculty
at New York University, and for two years was acting
professor of Philosophy at the University of New Bruns
wick. From September 1907 to the day of his death,
he was professor and chairman of the department of
Philosophy at Vassar College. In his sudden death on
September 2, 1933, the faculty of Vassar College has
suffered a grievous loss, and will miss in him a
vigorous active-minded colleague, loyal friend, and
neighbor.
Henry S. White
Margaret B. Rawlings
C. Mildred Thompson
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