Murray Kiteley

Murray Kiteley

Murray Kiteley died February 16, 2017 at the River Woods Retirement Community in Exeter, New Hampshire. He was born January 11, 1929 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

He is survived by his brother Gary Kiteley, his daughter Barbara Hill and son-in-law Peter Hill, and his son Brian Kiteley and daughter-in-law Cynthia Coburn, and beloved granddaughters Emma and Fiona Hill. Murray’s wife of 61 years Jean Kiteley died in the late fall of 2012 and his oldest son Geoffrey died in 1993, a loss from which he never really recovered.

Murray taught for four decades at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and for a large majority of the time he was the chair of the philosophy department. He retired as the Sophia Smith Endowed Chair. He also taught at San Jose State University, and he received his BA, MA, PhD from the University of Minnesota, with one year at Princeton Seminary, before he realized that his love of jazz conflicted with the vocation he was preparing to enter.

Murray’s great gift, other than philosophy, was for friendship. Even at the end of his life, in the tidal ebb and flow of Alzheimer’s, he befriended the staff and his fellow residents at The Boulders at River Woods. He had a gift for listening to people and asking questions, and he spoke with equal enthusiasm and interest to mechanics, jazz pianists, philosophers, fry cooks, and five-year-olds. He traveled the world, but it sometimes seemed he did so to catch up with old friends as much as to see new horizons.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. Arrangements are by he Stockbridge Funeral Home, Exeter.

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Per the request of the family,

no services are planned.