From Ben Sachs

As with many of us who worked with Sarah, I had no idea that she was unwell.  Sarah, to the end, was an incredibly giving, hard-working colleague, never complaining about her work or calling attention to her own struggles.

Sarah was a model in this way, one that few of us will ever live up to.  Sarah contributed to the philosophy department in so many ways outwith the letter of her job description–I don’t know how she did it all while still supervising her students and churning out excellent research.  She was Executive Editor of the Philosophical Quarterly, which is a job in itself.  And she attended departmental picnics, the weekly sessions of the Moral Philosophy Reading Group, all the senior staff seminars (“Philosophy Club”, as we called it), weekly meetings of the department’s Minorities and Philosophy chapter, more sessions of the weekly research student seminar (“The Friday Seminar”) than any other member of staff, volunteered as a judge for the John Stuart Mill Cup…the list goes on.  I hope this gives a sense for how collegial and generous with her time Sarah was.

Sarah was hilarious.  Her humour was so dry that I often didn’t know whether she was actually trying to be funny.  She had a way of cutting through a problem or a disagreement with a simple, sharp comment–one that floored you by revealing the absurdity of it all.  I wish I could tell a story that would get the picture across, but I can’t.  You had to be there.

On a more personal note, Sarah was the warm and sympathetic face in the department for me when I was just starting out–the person who, more than anyone else, made me feel welcome.  She was assigned to be my mentor and, as with everything else, went above and beyond in discharging that duty.  I’ll always look back fondly on our regular lunches together.  I would come to her with a work problem and come away feeling like she was in my corner, or come to her with a germ of a new philosophical idea and come away thinking that at least this one brilliant philosopher thought that it was promising.  She was incredibly encouraging and helpful, especially, when I was putting together my first book.  Who could ask for anything more in a mentor, nevermind a colleague?

Sarah’s passing is an enormous sadness and loss, and I’ll miss her greatly.