Floyd Centore: 1938-2003.

A small tribute to a Catholic philosopher

Waterloo, ON--The Canadian Fellowship of Catholic Scholars is very sorry to announce the passing of one of the great Thomist philosophers of this century, Dr. Floyd Centore. Dr. Centore's work as a teacher and writer revolved entirely around his students. His research efforts were always directly linked to what he accurately perceived to be their needs. He was one of the few professors who could hold the attention of a roomful of restless undergraduates. Because of this, I had arranged to take all 70 of my students, every semester, on a day trip to the University of St. Jerome's College to hear Dr. Centore speak to them personally on the importance of philosophy and other relevant issues. And what particularly impressed my young students were his zeal and his ability to answer their questions by opening up a door to a universe of learning that invited them to enter and spend the rest of their lives exploring.

For over thirty years Dr. Centore and the other philosophy professors of St. Jerome's College provided Catholic students with a solid grounding in philosophy that prevented so many of us from sinking into the quicksand pits that currently surround faculties of theology--more specifically, post-modernism under the guise of Catholic Theology.

Dr. Centore's life as a teacher of Catholic philosophy was completely devoted to serving the faith of the Church. Pope Leo XIII, in his Aeterni patris, said that "It is the glory of philosophy to be esteemed as the bulwark of faith and the strong defence of religion." In this light it can be said that Dr. Floyd Centore's life was indeed glorious, for it was a life devoted to God, to his wife and family, and to a strong defence of the Catholic faith. He is going to be terribly missed by a great many of us who were made the beneficiaries of his profound learning. (Doug McManaman, President of the Canadian Fellowship of Catholic Scholars)