I remember Steve as a good band mate.   We were lucky to have Steve in the trumpet section of the Brookline Community Band.

Steve was a cherished friend--good-natured, insightful, with a quiet and compassionate sense of humor.  We lived in adjacent dorm rooms for a year in college.  One vivid memory I have is hearing him play his banjo, and then walking into his room with my guitar, and we played for several hours, song after song.  I thought of that experience 50 years later, when we helped organize and lead a robust folk singing session at our 50th anniversary reunion at Swarthmore--a session that went until 2 in the morning, if I recall correctly.  I am grateful to have known Steve, and am thinking of him and Linda and his family and friends.

 Ron Hale

So sorry to hear about Stephen's passing.  I was a librarian for many years at Northeastern U. and had the fortune to chat with him over films he would be using for his classes or see him on the quad going to and fro.  Stephen had a wonderful smile and was very kind and open hearted. He was a genius in his profession and I am glad I had the opportunity to cross paths with him.

May his memory be a blessing.

Debra Mandel

My wife Maddy and I were saddened to hear of Steve's passing. He was our friend in the neighborhood, a companion walking to the T-stop, a dedicated parent at the Zervas school, a colleague at Northeastern as well as a fellow folk music enthusiast. He was a true mensch and the world is poorer for his loss. Our heartfelt condolences to Linda, Sarah and Michael. 

It was my pleasure to work with Steve on Newton Dialogues over the past years.  He was always very thoughtful in sorting through the issues, bring a calm voice of reasoned advocacy to our work.  He had a great impact on what we did.  I miss him truly.  The words "Blessed are the Peacemakers" surely apply to Steve.

Stephen Nathanson was my first philosophy professor when I started as an engineering major at Northeastern University in 2012. I distinctly remember his "Markets, Governments, and Economic Justice" course as a revelation---I had already developed a cynicism that such issues could not be discussed seriously and rationally. Professor Nathanson was a perfect example of a philosopher, equally critical and charitable, interested in the truth. Besides his excellent introductory text, Professor Nathanson covered a wide range of interesting materials including the work of authors like Ayn Rand, to which few philosophers would deign to give attention to but whose work was familiar and even influential to incoming students. In characteristic even-handedness, we also read the Communist Manifesto, in addition to political philosophy standards like Nozick and Rawls. I believe that was Professor Nathanson's final course before his retirement.

It is safe to say that the course changed my life: it lead to my changing majors and going on to graduate school in philosophy. I remember having a chat with Professor Nathanson in the quad (which he noted was but a parking lot when he started) as I was ruminating over whether majoring in philosophy was a good decision and he told me a story about when he was deciding to go to graduate school. He said, if I remember correctly, that Mrs. Nathanson told him that if he became a philosopher he would at least "never be bored". That stuck with me, and I haven't been bored yet! I greatly appreciate my brief relationship with Professor Nathanson and wish to express my deepest condolences to his family and friends.

I will always remember Steve's warmth, determination, spirit, and musical gifts at the Boston University Aphasia Resource Center.
My condolences to Steve's family.

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Stephen Nathanson

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