From Martin Lipman
Having had Katherine as one of my supervisors is something I’m very grateful for. There are too many good memories to list but – and this is probably because of her role as supervisor – the last days I have been thinking especially of the many lessons I can take from the way she did things, and about how she is still teaching me by example.
For example, she showed that there is no real excuse for being unkind in our profession. She showed that one can raise serious problems in a Q&A without coming across as combative, that one can organize oneself and protect time without letting others feel it and that one can be incredibly busy, under a ton of work pressure, and yet remain kind and warm, and able to listen to others.
I also think a lot about how she supervised. When I started the PhD, she wanted me to focus on the process, the reading, writing and thinking, more than the outcome. She was great at building confidence in those initial stages, of giving the feeling that my ideas were worthwhile exploring. She had a very good sense of which questions needed answers and, perhaps more importantly, which didn’t and so steered me away from getting stuck by thinking that all questions need answers right away. She always pushed me to state things in simple straightforward terms (she would often say “keep it present tense”, which we joked about, given her views in the philosophy of time). She was very keen to avoid writing taking control over the ideas. She was an amazing person to talk philosophy with.
I could go on. Katherine was the kind of philosopher that makes me rethink academic excellence, of what I think we should aspire to as an academic. She will continue to do so. I will really miss her.