MCMURTRY, John Murray

Slipped away quietly and peacefully on December 30, 2021, age 82.

Born in Toronto in 1939 to Doris Elisabeth (nee Belcher) and Roland Roy McMurtry, brother to Roy, William and Robert, and husband of Cynthia Ann Gordon (b. 1941, d. 1974). John was a graduate of the University of Toronto and University College London (PhD), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph.

At various times a professional football player, newspaper columnist and teacher, John found his true calling as a scholar and professor of philosophy. He was a life-long philosophical theorist, political analyst, esteemed teacher, and active public intellectual with a relentlessly inquiring mind. His interdisciplinary scholarship covered Marxist philosophy, children’s rights, love, logic, war, competition, Eastern philosophy, ethics and value theory, the environment, education, and sport with an ongoing focus on challenging norms and envisioning a better world for all. In his later years he dedicated this focus to developing a revolutionary and comprehensive theory and method of life-value onto-axiology, outlined in Philosophy and World Problems (Volumes 1 to 3) for UNESCO. This method is used to uncover and explain what he termed the “life-blind” presuppositions of philosophical, economic, social, and political thought and practice.

Those who knew him will never forget his love of adventure (a world traveller, all-weather cyclist, and body surfer), his deep and spiritual connection to nature (an avid birdwatcher, forest bather, sun worshipper and gardener), his boundless enthusiasm for life (always at the ready for singing, dancing, or wrestling with the kids), his disciplined athleticism, his poetry, and his endless empathic curiosity about the people he loved.

He will be remembered as, and remains, an enduring life-force. He is survived by his four children, Tearney, JJ, Matthew and Elana, his partner of 47 years, Jennifer, brothers Roy and Robert, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Arrangements entrusted to Gilbert MacIntyre and Son Funeral Home, Dublin Chapel, 252 Dublin Street, North, Guelph. Online condolences can be made at www.gilbertmacintyreandson.com.