Private memorial services are being planned at a later date for Clark A. Kucheman, the Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Christian Ethics Emeritus. The longtime CMC professor died on December 27. He was 78.
Professor Kucheman joined the faculty of Claremont Men’s College in 1967. His favorite course was Philosophy 131, Hegel and Marx, and he felt strongly that “the thought of Hegel and Karl Marx was ideal not only for assisting students in their self-liberation but also for developing and expressing [Professor Kucheman’s] own capacities for self-determination.”
In a recent article for CMC magazine, Professor Kucheman chose these words of wisdom from Hegel to pass along: “The final purpose of education is liberation and the struggle for a higher liberation still.” Students, he continued, should develop and express their capacities as thinking beings by making decisions autonomously and rationally, and faculty members should have it as their primary purpose to assist students in their efforts to do so.
Longtime friend and colleague Stephen Davis, the Russell K Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, says Professor Kucheman had strong convictions about life, the welfare of animals, human freedom, and higher education. “But he was also a kind and caring man who treated all people with respect, including his colleagues and especially his students,” Davis says. “His deepest aim for CMC students was that they be broadly and liberally educated persons.”
John K. Roth, the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and founding director of The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at CMC, says Clark Kucheman’s long service to Claremont McKenna College involved “passionate commitment to the study of religion and ethics.
“Just as he defended the separation of church and state, he insisted that the hallmark of the study of religion should be critical inquiry about that crucial aspect of human existence, an approach not to be confused with advocacy for specific faith traditions,” Roth recalls. “His teaching and scholarship included interests that linked the fields of religious studies and ethics with economics, which led to fruitful team-teaching with his CMC economics colleague, Colin Wright. Many, many CMC students benefited from Clark’s teaching, and his faculty colleagues did the same from his learning, wisdom, and friendship.”
Professor Kucheman retired from the College in 2007.
Before joining CMC, he was the assistant professor of ethics and society at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and a member of the Claremont Graduate University faculty. He also was a former lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.
During his long academic career, Professor Kucheman was widely published. He was a contributing author of Ethics, Religion, and the Good Society: New Directions in a Pluralistic World (1992), and Terrorism, Justice, and Social Values (1990). He also was the editor of The Life of Choice: Some Liberal Religious Perspectives on Morality (1978) and published numerous journal articles on religion and ethics as well as contributing essays to several anthologies. Professor Kucheman was a member of the Hegel Society of America.
He graduated from the University of Akron and earned his B.D. in theology, an M.A. in economics, and a Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago.
Professor Kucheman is survived by his wife, Melody; his sister, Carol Fromuth; and a niece and nephew. A private service for the family will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Humane Society of the United States or to The University of Chicago School of Divinity.