Dallas Willard

He tied the nuptial knot with Jane Lakes of Macon, Georgia in 1955. The couple was blessed with two children, John and Becky.

He breathed his last on May 8, 2013, after suffering from cancer.

Not much is known about Dallas Willard’s parents or his childhood life other than the fact that he was born at Buffalo, Missouri, US on September 4, 1935.

Young Willard completed his preliminary education from William Jewell College before moving to Tennessee Temple College to complete his undergraduate studies. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1956.

The following year, he attained his BA in Philosophy and Religion from the Baylor University. Later on, he attended the graduate school at Baylor University and University of Wisconsin-Madison to earn his PhD. He completed his PhD in Philosophy in 1964 with a minor in History of Science.

At the time of attaining his PhD from the University of Winconsin-Madison, he took up a teaching position therein and continued to serve in the profile for five years, from 1961 to 1965.

In 1965, he took up the position of Professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His brilliance at training and complete know-how of the subject turned profitable for both him and the institution.

No sooner than in 1982, he was made Director of the School of Philosophy, a position which he held unto 1985. Meanwhile, he also served as the visiting professor at UCLA in 1969 and at the University of Colorado in 1984.

During this time, he published various publications about philosophy. Most of them centred around epistemology and philosophy of mind and of logic. He even jotted the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and translated the latter’s work from German to English.

He had such a hold of Edmund Husserl’s work that he was widely regarded as the international authority on the latter’s work. In his lifetime, he came up with two translations of the work by Husserl; one in 1993 by the title, ‘Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics’ and in 2003, ‘Philosophy of Arithmetic’

From 1965 to 1977, he served as a Danforth Associate

In 1976, he was felicitated with the Blue Key National Honor Fraternity's ‘Outstanding Faculty Member’ award for outstanding contributions to student life at USC

He was presented with the prestigious USC Associated Award for Excellence in Teaching for 1976-77. In the summer of 1977, he was one of the faculty participants in the COLLEGIUM PHAENOMENOLOGICUM at Monteripido.

In 1984, he was conferred with the USC Student Senate Award in the category of Outstanding Faculty of the Year

In 1990, he served as the lecturer in Corsi Estivi Internazionali di Filosofia, Bozen, Italy. Same year, he was signed up as a member of the PHI KAPPA PHI National Honor Society