Dennis Thompson, Founder of the Safra Center for Ethics, Remembered as Revolutionary Thinker

When Emanuela Ceva sent her paper on the conceptualization of corruption to retired professor Dennis F. Thompson, she was not expecting an immediate response.

But Ceva said Thompson, whom she had never met, replied to her email immediately with comments and advice on her work.

“The first exchange we had was by email, and that was already indicative of Dennis’s kindness, generosity and intellectual availability,” she said. “ I think that is very telling of his openness and the kind of person and scholar he was.”

Thompson, the founding director of the Harvard Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics who had taught at Harvard since 1986, died March 30 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 84.

Former students and colleagues remembered Thompson as a generous and unimposing mentor, whose passion for ethics brought an interdisciplinary coalition of scholars to the Safra Center.

“He put real rich, substantive conversation across disciplinary boundaries at the heart of the Ethics Center,” Danielle S. Allen, a previous director of the Safra center, said.

But Ceva said that Thompson was, most importantly, “a real mentor and a guide” for young researchers.

“Students and younger scholars will definitely miss an important example of how academic work should be carried out,” Ceva said.

‘Extraordinarily Supportive’

Thompson began his academic career at the College of William and Mary, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1962. He continued his education as a Fulbright Scholar at Oxford, eventually earning his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard.

Thompson married his former high school classmate Carol Joslyn, who he reconnected with during his summer vacations from college while studying at Oxford.

He began his career as a professor at Princeton University, where he taught political science and ethics for 18 years. Thomas M. Scanlon, who taught philosophy at Princeton alongside Thompson, said they became fast friends because of their shared interest in political philosophy.

“He got me thinking beyond the bounds of philosophy directly, and thinking more about how thinking about philosophy fitted into the wider network of institutions and larger politics — not just abstractly, but in terms of really how did things work?” Scanlon said.

Chuck R. Beitz, a current professor of political philosophy at Princeton, said Thompson was “extraordinarily supportive and generous with his time” as his dissertation advisor.

“He was not the sort of mentor who expected any of his students to toe the party line or to practice his own approach to things,” said Beitz.

Beyond working with Thompson on his dissertation, Beitz said he appreciated Thompson’s unique teaching style. Beitz noted that he would use a chess timer to limit how much time each student would speak, ensuring everyone had their fair share of class time.

“The rule was that when the bell rang, you were expected to stop speaking, even if you were in mid-sentence,” said Beitz. “So all of us learned. We not only learned the value of time, we also learned how to get out our thoughts fairly efficiently.”

But most importantly, Beitz said that Thompson’s mentorship helped students find their own interpretations, and approaches, to studying political science,

“He thought that an advisor’s major job was to help a student to be their best self — and he was just gifted at that,” said Beitz.

‘The Great Citizens of The World’

After nearly 20 years at Princeton, Thompson returned to Harvard in 1986 to help establish the Safra Center for Ethics. Appointed by President Derek C. Bok, Thompson worked to develop a space for interdisciplinary study of ethics on campus.

Mathias Risse, the director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center, wrote in an email that Thompson was a “great institution-builder” who opened the space for ethics at Harvard’s graduate schools.

“He created a presence for ethics across professional schools at Harvard, including and especially at the Harvard Kennedy School. My own position here came about because of this.”

Robert D. Truog, who worked as a fellow at the Safra Center in 1990, said Thompson created space for him to study ethics in clinical medical practice. But more importantly, he credits Thompson with helping establish the field of medical ethics at HMS.

“It was a complete game changer for my career. My career would not have been possible without his influence,” Truog added. “He really raised the question of ethics to a high degree within Harvard Medical School.”

In the Tuesday afternoon weekly meetings Thompson led at the Safra Center, Truog said Thompson was “very good at creating a curriculum and a syllabus that directed us towards readings in the professions.”

Regardless of academic background, Harvard Law School professor David B. Wilkins ’77 said Thompson made everyone feel welcome at the Safra Center.

“We had some of the most famous philosophers of the world who were a part, who came to the program, but also junior people like me, and he made it so that everyone felt that they were included and that their voice could be heard,” Wilkins said.

Jean M. McVeigh, who held an administrative position at the Safra Center, recalled Thompson’s warmth and generosity with admiration.

“How can we find so many virtues in one person? That was Dennis,” she said.

“He was just fantastic,” McVeigh added. “He spoke clearly and didn’t try to stretch his heart in any way. He was just lovely.”

McVeigh also recalled how, unlike many professors who open with critique, Thompson began his feedback by emphasizing what his students had done well.

“He did it the complete opposite way that a normal person or a normal teacher would do it,” she said. “That was so uplifting for the students, because they heard how good they were right off the bat, and then they heard about the things they needed to work on.”

What McVeigh especially appreciated about Thompson was his selflessness and dedication to lift others up.

“He had the academic expertise, but he had the emotional intelligence that could raise people and allow him to deal with them in a way that was beneficial to them. And it wasn’t about him, it was about the student, it was about the fellow. It was about the faculty members,” McVeigh said. “He was one of the great citizens of the world.”

— Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at neeraja.kumar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @neerajasrikumar.

—Staff writer Mana Tsuruta can be reached at mana.tsuruta@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ManaTsuruta.