We are saddened to announce the passing of Catherine Lord Benardete, who was for many years a Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. A specialist in Aesthetics, Catherine was a fine philosopher and an esteemed teacher and colleague.

Catherine was born in Madeira in 1927 to the diplomat John Lord and Gwyneth Brudenell-Bruce, and she lived with her parents at a diplomatic post in Austria at the time of the Anschluss. When war broke out, she was sent to England to live with her mother’s relatives, and then to Boston to stay with her father's relatives. There, at the age of 18, she completed her secondary education at the Winsor School. Upon graduation from Bryn Mawr, she was momentarily employed by Time magazine. Not long after though, she resumed her education- first at Columbia, then at Yale, and then finally at Indiana University, where she completed her doctorate degree.

Catherine then joined the SU Philosophy Department in 1959, and around 1962, she married Jose Benardete, who had joined the department in 1960. They were a devoted couple until his death in 2016.

Catherine had a life-long interest in international affairs, but her special interest was in poetry. In her spare time, she was also an avid fisherman. Catherine had suffered from osteomyelitis since childhood, but that did not stop her from fishing in her special lightweight canoe.

Adapted from the Syracuse Post Standard's Obituary for Catherine Benardete