Jean Gabbert Harrell's Obituary
JEAN GABBERT HARRELLJean passed away peacefully on September 24, 2011, in Hayward, from end stage Alzheimer’s disease. A native of Berkeley California, she was born Sept. 28 1921, attended Berkeley High and graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in 1943. She did her graduate work at Columbia University, where she received her Ph.D. in philosophy in 1950. She taught philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts, from 1945-1947.After a hiatus as a mother and homemaker living in New York City, Alabama and Southern California and the death of her husband Elwood C Harrell in 1963, she resumed her teaching career. She was selected as one of the original members of the philosophy department at California State University, Hayward in 1964. Her teaching career there spanned 26 years, serving as Department Chair in both the 1970s and 1980s. During her tenures as Chair, she was affectionately known to her faculty as The Dragon Lady, thanks to her love of bright red, Chinese fabrics. She retired in 1980 and continued teaching part time in the Faculty Early Retirement Program until spring 1992. She was the author of numerous philosophical articles published in, The Journal of Philosophy, Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and other national and international philosophical journals. She was among the first to appreciate the philosophy of Roman Ingaarden and edited an important collection of his writings. She was the author of two well-received books in the philosophy of music, “Soundtracks” published by Prometheus Books in 1986 and “Profundity” published by Penn State Univ. Press in 1992. She was a member of the American Philosophical Association, the American Society of Aesthetics, which she served as Secretary for several years and the American Association of University Professors.In addition to her philosophical accomplishments, she was a first-rate pianist, outstanding seamstress, and capable administrator who steered her department through the turbulent 1970s. She is survived by two sons, Scott Harrell , Brian Harrell and his children Julia and Andrew, a daughter Gail Lindberg and her children Nina and Jonathan. No services were held, and she has been interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland CA.
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