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1995-1996 index
Memorial service will honor life of philosophy professor Vincent Tomas
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A memorial service to honor Vincent Tomas, the William Herbert Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Brown University, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, in the Crystal Room of Alumnae Hall, 194 Meeting St. Tomas died Nov. 25, 1995, at the age of 79.
Born in Cicero, Ill., in 1916, Tomas received his bachelor's degree from Knox College in 1936 and a doctorate from Brown in 1941. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. During World War II he served in the European Theater with the 11th Armored Division and earned the Silver Star and service ribbons.
Tomas joined the Brown faculty in 1946 where he remained until his retirement in 1980. He also served as a visiting professor at Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, Northwestern, Minnesota and Calgary universities. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in Rome in 1959-60. In 1972 he was one of two Brown professors selected by the Board of Foreign Scholarships to teach American literature at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
As a founding member of the American civilization program at Brown, Tomas also served as chairman of the philosophy department, in addition to serving on other University committees. He was a member and officer of the American Association of University Professors, the American Philosophical Association, the American Society for Aesthetics and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Tomas is survived by his wife, Charlotte (Lowney) Tomas, of Barrington, R.I., and two sons, Jefferson Tomas, of Providence, and Otis A. Tomas, of Nova Scotia, Canada.
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