Retired philosophy professor Marcus Hester has died

Marcus Hester

Retired philosophy professor Marcus Hester passed away on Sunday, March 31.

Hester graduated from Wake Forest in 1960. After earning his PhD in philosophy at Vanderbilt, he returned to Wake Forest as a faculty member in the philosophy department. For 43 years, he introduced generations of students to Aristotle, Plato and logic.

Hester’s first book, “The Meaning of Poetic Metaphor,” was a pioneering philosophical work on metaphor.

“Marcus devoted his whole academic life to Wake Forest,” said philosophy professor Win Chiat-Lee. “In graduate school, he was a classmate of the late Wake Forest President Thomas K. Hearn. They remained friends until President Hearn passed away in 2008.”

We extend our condolences to Hester’s family and friends and to those who had the opportunity to know him.

An obituary is available here.