Editor’s note: Professor George Schuler worked at Ithaca College in the 1980s and 90s in the Department of Psychology, eventually becoming chair of the department. He retired in 2001 and received emeritus status in 2011. 

I write this note of gratitude in memory of Professor George Schuler (1935–2024) who passed away on September 7. I suspect his former colleagues and students have plenty of stories to share about his warm humanity, open-mindedness and caring nature, and this is mine.

 We were in different departments, and he retired some years after I joined IC, so our lives intersected only briefly. Still, he was the only faculty member to speak out in my defense after the publication of one of my essays provoked some alumni and their parents to try and get me fired. This is because I had put the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. in the context of its foreign policies instead of attributing them, as President George W. Bush had, to an irrational and intrinsically “Islamic” hatred for the US. 

Editor’s note: The essay Barlas is referring to is titled “Why Do They Hate Us?” and was published in the Ithaca College Quarterly alumni magazine, now ICView.

I’ve always understood Professor Schuler’s support of me not as an endorsement of my views, but as a principled defense of the right citizens have in democracies to speak freely about controversial subjects. I recall his ethical stance with special gratitude today, since this right is being threatened on many campuses in relation to the events in Israel and Gaza and it’s rare to hear tolerant voices like his.

 Even as I’m grieving his loss, I am reminded of that wonderful Chinese proverb: “All of life is a dream-walking; all of death is a going home.” I’m sure you have gone to a wonderful home, dear George! Rest in peace.