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Dec. 21, 2007--Lucia M. Palmer, 78, professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware, died Dec. 11, at her home in Swarthmore, Pa.
A native of Pisa, Italy, Dr. Palmer received her bachelor's degree and doctorate at the University of Pisa in 1956 and did additional graduate studies at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois before coming in 1964 to the University of Delaware, where she spent more than 40 years as an active faculty member. She became a full professor in 1988, and was actively teaching at the time of her death. She was a member of the core faculty in the University Honors Program and an affiliated faculty member in the Women's Studies Program.
Dr. Palmer published many articles, notes, review articles and reviews and participated extensively in international conferences, reading papers and acting as commentator or symposiast.
She published a translation from the Latin of The First Book on Metaphysics of Gian Battista Vico (Cornell University Press, 1988) and co-edited two books--one with Donald Mell and Theodore Braun on Man, God and Nature: Essays in the Enlightenment (Colleague Press 1988) and one with H. S. Harris on Thought, Action and Intuition, Reflections on the Philosophy of Benedetto Croce (Georg Olms Verlag, 1975).
Dr. Palmer was very active in University governance, serving on many important committees in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the University Faculty Senate, as well as various college and University-wide administrative committees.
The breadth of her professional expertise was shown in an astonishing variety of courses, at the undergraduate and graduate levels and in her very active contributions to the Honors Program. The courses she taught most regularly were Contemporary Moral Problems, Ancient Philosophy, Modern Philosophy and graduate-level courses in Plato and Kant. She frequently team-taught courses with other philosophers and colleagues in English, history and foreign languages and participated in humanities semesters, and in the programs in Women's Studies and in Science and Culture.
Dr. Palmer was a two-time winner of the University of Delaware Lindbach Teaching Award and received special grants and awards in teaching. She was noted for her active mind, keeping abreast of an astonishing variety of philosophical fields and was amazingly able to raise questions about papers given by visiting readers of papers. Her active mind and enthusiasm for her students endeared her to them and many visited her office frequently. She richly deserved her two teaching awards, and many of her students went on to graduate school in philosophy. Few teachers showed greater care for her students than she did, and she inspired their finest efforts
Dr. Palmer was devoted to her students, and instilled in them great enthusiasm for philosophy by the excitement she generated in the classroom and outside as well, in office conferences, and sidewalk discussions with them.
Frank Dilley, professor emeritus, recalls vividly the time when, as chairperson of a rapidly expanding department, he asked Dr. Palmer which of the courses that she had been teaching could he give to a new colleague. “I recall her reproaching me a month later for taking her course away!” She loved all her courses and regarded them as her personal domain, and had that same proprietary attitude toward her students. That was part of her personality and one of the reasons people admired her.
The mother of Robert “Bino” Palmer (deceased), Dr. Palmer is survived by two grandchildren, Sofia and Julian Palmer of Carlisle, Mass.
A memorial service is planned for early spring at the University of Delaware. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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