John J. McDermott

John Joseph McDermott (January 5, 1932 – September 30, 2018) was an American philosopher and a professor at Texas A&M University. He was a distinguished professor at Texas A&M since 1981 and held the Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in the Humanities.

Biography McDermott was born in New York City to John J. and Helen Kelly McDermott.

At Texas A&M, McDermott called the school's first faculty meeting in 1983. That meeting resulted in the formation of the school's faculty senate and McDermott was the group's first speaker. He founded the College of Medicine's Humanities in Medicine Department, and he was the department head from 1983 to 1990.

A focus of McDermott's work is the connection between American philosophy and culture. He compiled and introduced volumes of writing by William James, Josiah Royce and John Dewey. He was president of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy from 1978 to 1980 and of the William James Society in 2001-2002. In 2016, he was awarded the society's first Lifetime Achievement Award. He was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Montessori Society in 1980. and five children from his first marriage. McDermott was very involved in Alcoholics Anonymous, and when he died he had been sober for 30 years.