This past Monday Tyndale hosted a farewell party for Dr. Myles Leitch, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, who is leaving us to join the Canadian Bible Society. In addition to helping develop and run the Linguistics Department at Tyndale, he’s also been an Affiliated Member of the Philosophy Department. Though his departure is good for him (and even better for the Canadian Bible Society), it is a blow to our department.

At his farewell we had an opportunity to reflect on how fortunate we were that a linguist, who happens to be very interested in philosophy, joined Tyndale’s faculty. Dr. Leitch’s Philosophy of Language and Intermediate Logic courses are not typically available in small programs like ours even though they can provide the students who take them a significant advantage when putting their graduate studies applications together. The percentage of students who took those courses and then went on to do very well in various graduate programs is shockingly high. In addition to his academic gifts, he also deeply cares about his students and was a favorite among them. The story about Dr. Leitch’s courses was that they were among the most challenging we offer, but they were also among the most rewarding. It is certainly the case that Dr. Leitch’s unique combination of skills and talents will not be easily replaced.