Tim Smiley: an anecdote

Tim Smiley, an Fellow of my Cambridge college (Clare), died about two weeks ago. He had a long and distinguished career, holding major College offices such as Senior Tutor, while garnering academic accolades, such as becoming a Fellow of the British Academy. Although his specialism was logic, chiefly philosophical logic, we seldom spoke about technical matters, which I now regret. I’m not sure he was ever aware of the sort of work I was doing. Even today, most people find computational logic pretty obscure. But I do have one little story about him. After dinner As a young Fellow of Clare, I dined in College fairly regularly but never stayed late, not wanting to leave my wife home alone. As I rose to leave, one of the other older Fellows said, “Going back to the lab, are you?” After I set him right, he went on to say, “Let me tell you a story about Tim Smiley.” I had to hear him out. “Once when he left dinner early, I asked him why and he said that he was going to gather his students…