Gary Michael Gutting

Gary Michael Gutting, the John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, died on Friday, January 18, 2019 at Northwestern Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.  He was 76.

An influential philosopher and award-winning educator, Professor Gutting was also a beloved public intellectual. He wrote frequently for The New York Times, his essays never failing to stir debate. He insisted on civility in discussions and was always more interested in rational conversation than in forcing his beliefs and opinions on others. Many of his academic publications focused on French philosophy, particularly Michel Foucault, but he also worked on analytic philosophy. He wrote several books accessible to general readers as well, including What Philosophy Can Do (2015) and Talking God: Philosophers on Belief (2016). In 2002, he and his wife, Anastasia, founded Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, and he served as co-editor with her until his death.

Professor Gutting was born on April 11, 1942 in St. Louis, MO. His father, Edwin Michael Gutting, was a typographical printer for the Granite City Press-Record, and his mother, Evelyn Louise Kossman, was a homemaker and member of the Sweet Adelines. As a child, Dr. Gutting excelled at tap dancing and baseball. After being taught by Ursuline nuns in elementary school, he was educated by Jesuits, graduating from St. Louis University High School and then receiving a full scholarship to St. Louis University. His graduate work, also at St. Louis University, was funded by a National Defense Education Act Title IV grant.

On June 26, 1965, he married Anastasia Marie Friel in St. Louis. Upon finishing his Ph.D. in 1968, he won a Fulbright fellowship and the couple moved to Louvain, Belgium. This first European adventure fueled their passion for food, wine, and culture, and gave them an unparalleled collection of wonderful stories (a suitcase stolen in Strasbourg; the time they pretended not to understand any known language at a concert in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris; being stopped from going to Prague by the Soviet invasion). Upon their return to the United States the following year, Professor Gutting joined the philosophy department at the University of Notre Dame, where he remained for his entire career.  

A committed intellectual, Professor Gutting instilled in his children a love of books and learning. Reading Parties, where he read aloud stories by James Thurber, Saki, and Frank O’Connor, as well as Voltaire’s Candide, Mrs. Henry de la Pasteur’s The Unlucky Family, and many others, became a favorite family tradition, accompanied by a large bowl of popcorn and fresh-squeezed (by him) orange-lemonade, dubbed “Real Juice” by his elder son. He told his children Greek myths every day when he drove them to school and was always ready to play baseball on the front lawn. He passed his love of astronomy on to his daughter, and they watched the 2017 total solar eclipse together, making good on a plan first hatched around 1976. He had a lifelong passion for classical music and enjoyed countless Chicago Symphony concerts. Taking his grandson, Alexander, to a performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique catalyzed years of the two of them listening to music together, especially Beethoven, Mahler, and Shostakovich.

Professor Gutting is survived by his wife; daughter, Tasha (Andrew) Grant; sons, Edward (Angela) Gutting and Thomas (Andrea) Gutting; grandson, Alexander Tyska; granddaughters, Charlotte and Clara Gutting; sister, Diane (Paul) Venker; brother, David (Cheryl) Gutting; sister-in-law, Miriam Gutting. His older brother, Donald Gutting, preceded him in death.  

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 3:30p.m. on Friday, February 1, 2019 at Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of University of Notre Dame. Burial will follow at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Notre Dame, Indiana. 

Memorial contributions in memory of Gary Gutting can be made to the Chicago Symphony Association, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.

Online condolences may be sent through www.palmerfuneralhomes.com. 

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.