David Gruber, a philosophy professor, academic activist, and AAUP stalwart died August 3 at the age of forty-seven. A few months before his death, the AAUP's Assembly of State Conferences awarded Gruber the Tacey Award in recognition of his outstanding service to the Missouri AAUP conference over the years. In addition, the AAUP's Executive Committee passed the following resolution.
Professor David Gruber, professor of philosophy at Truman State University , began attending national meetings as a delegate in 1992; in 1996 he became a member of the national Council and served until 2002, including two terms on the Executive Committee . He served on the Credentials Committee for 1997 and chaired the Resolutions Committee for the 1998 and 1999 annual meetings. He chaired the Membership Task Force appointed in 2000 and served on the Committee on Organization from 2000 to 2003, at which time he assumed the chairmanship of that committee. He was associated with the Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession for eight years—a committee member from 1996 to 2002 and consultant to the committee for three years thereafter. His most enduring contribution to the Association and the profession will be his work chairing the subcommittee that drafted the AAUP's critical new policy statement on contingent appointments and their effect on education and the faculty.
Whereas with the approach of the Association's Ninety-first Annual Meeting, we reflect upon the 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure; and
Whereas that declaration states that "The liberty of the scholar within the university to set forth his conclusions, be they what they may, is conditioned by their being conclusions gained by a scholar's method and held in a scholar's spirit; that is to say, they must be the fruits of competent and patient and sincere inquiry, and they should be set forth with dignity, courtesy, and temperateness of language"; and
Whereas Professor Gruber describes his own teaching and research interests as "social and political philosophy and contemporary continental philosophy with emphasis on critical theory and the stubbornly smoldering ruins of liberalism and modernity"; and
Whereas Professor David Gruber is a patient and considerate scholar; an individual of pedagogical wisdom, gentle humor, and profound dignity; a constant champion of academic freedom and shared governance for all members of the academy; and a constructive challenger of policies that fall short of his professional and person ideals;
Therefore be it resolved that the American Association of University Professors considers Professor David Gruber's contributions to the Association and to the academy both selfless and significant;
And further be it resolved that the Executive Committee of the AAUP, on behalf of the national Council, association members and staff, hereby acknowledges and celebrates Professor David Gruber as an embodiment of the "scholar's spirit" to which our principles call us all to aspire.