The distinguished philosopher, Thomas Molnar, died in Richmond, Virginia on July 20. Over his 89 years he saw the worst that man was capable of and enjoyed the friendship of his colleagues in America, his native Hungary, and other parts of the world. Andrew Cusak’s obituary provides the essentials of Thomas Molnar's life.

For those of us who were his friends, we remember his graciousness, intelligence and the vastness of his knowledge.  Living in a suburb of Manhattan from 1970 to 1983, I met Dr. Molnar socially at events in the City.  Like most European intellectuals, Molnar was a city person and from his apartment near Lincoln Center he could enjoy New York's cultural richness and commute easily to his classes at City University of New York. 

Molnar was a professor of Romance Languages at CUNY when I knew him and that institution had initiated a policy of open admissions.  Senior scholars of distinction who graced its faculty and who had enriched the lives of generations of New Yorkers were compelled to teach remedial courses.  Many resigned, if they were able.  Others, like Thomas Molnar, endured the degeneration of an academic institution by writing important works in Philosophy.  I asked him once why he was teaching Romance Languages when his genius lay in Philosophy.  He said that as a young émigré he was encouraged by others who lacked his language skills to seek employment in Literature. 

Always engaging in conversation, and with biting wit, he described the failings of the West, of our intellectual classes, politicians and the Catholic Church.  He reported once on a trip he took to a village in Italy where he said, "The parish priest was a bit daft, somewhat like the Church itself."  Since at the time I was teaching at a Catholic college where the religious order that founded the institution was clearly a "bit daft," I knew exactly what he meant.  It broke his heart, of course, but Thomas Molnar shared his colleague Frederick Wilhelmsen's opinion that conservatives are anti-clerical.  Like cooking, which is too important to be left to women, so theology is too important to be left to priests.

May God bless Thomas Molnar and may he now enjoy the company of angels and those few scholars whose lives are rewarded by admission to Heaven.