Professor Bob Gorman, a long-time and beloved member of the UT family, passed away on Friday, July 3rd after a long illness.
Bob worked for his entire life in higher education. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, he attended City College of New York, graduating with a BA in Political Science in 1966. He went on to earn his MA and PhD in Politics from New York University. From 1973-74 he was an assistant professor at William Patterson College (now William Patterson University) in Wayne, NJ. From 1974-77, he was an assistant professor at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), in Hampton VA. He was promoted in 1978 to associate professor. In 1978, he joined the faculty in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1981, to professor in 1986. He held an appointment as adjunct professor in Cultural Studies from 1997-99, and he served Political Science as Director of Graduate Studies from 2004-08. Upon his retirement in 2011, he was named professor emeritus.
Over the course of a 33-year career at UTK, Bob was recognized several times for his contributions to the university’s teaching, research, and service missions. From 1993 to 2003, he was a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities. Other awards include Phi Beta Kappa Certificate of Merit (1982) and the College of Liberal Arts Community Outreach Service Award (1990).
Bob was a widely published scholar, specializing in political theory. His books were published by Routledge, Praeger, and Greenwood Presses, and focused on theories of left-liberal politics. His last published work was a monograph on the political scientist and socialist Michael Harrington. Committed to the study of theories of social justice, Bob also published essays in Critique, Soundings, Rethinking Marxism, History and Theory, Phenomenological Sociology, Politics and Society, British Journal of Sociology, and International Studies Quarterly as well as numerous professional book reviews in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
In addition to being an excellent teacher, mentor and scholar, Bob Gorman was a great man who will be sorely missed by his many friends, colleagues and former students.
Written by John Scheb
July 9, 2015