It is with much sadness, but also with great appreciation of her long service to the UCLA Department of Philosophy, that we report that Marilyn McCord Adams, our emerita professor, has died after a career of great distinction in both philosophy and theology.
Professor Adams, an expert on medieval philosophy and philosophy of religion, was especially known for her writing on the problem of evil. She taught at UCLA from 1972 to 1993, and chaired the department. During her time at UCLA she was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.
After she retired from UCLA, she went on to be the Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology in the Yale Divinity School, and then to become the first woman to be Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford University. Returning to the United States, she continued teaching at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and then at Rutgers University.
Our deepest sympathies go out to her husband, emeritus professor Robert Merrihew Adams.
Memorial services for Marilyn are planned for Saturday, April 8, at 10:00 a.m., at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 801 W. State Street, in Trenton, New Jersey; and for Saturday, May 6, at 10:00 a.m., at All Saints Episcopal Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, in Beverly Hills, California.