Anatole Ben Anton

December 25, 2023

Anatole Ben Anton passed away peacefully at the University of California Medical Center, Parnassus, on December 25, 2023, at the age of 84 after an 11 year struggle with Lewy body dementia. Kathryn Kenley-Johnson, his partner and wife of 31 years and Glenna Anton, his beloved and devoted daughter, were by his bedside.

Born on April 18, 1939, Anatole grew up in New York’s Greenwich Village. His father, an abstract expressionist painter, shaped his lifelong interest in the arts and humanities. Obtaining his B.A. degree from City College of New York, he earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University.

Anatole was a teacher, a scholar, and an activist. He taught philosophy at San Francisco State University (1967-1971) at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1971-1975) and (1976-1977), and at various Bay Area colleges. In 1984, he returned to San Francisco State University as a tenured professor where he served until his 2006 retirement, as department chair, as general editor of the San Francisco State Series in Philosophy, and as a key member of the SFSU Faculty Student Mentorship Program.

Although well-versed in analytic philosophy through his training at Stanford, Anatole developed his academic interest in Marxist philosophy and his commitment to social justice during a blockade-busting trip to Cuba with a group of students in 1963 when such travel was illegal included a seminar with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Anatole served on the editorial board of ‘Capitalism, Nature, and Socialism’ and was a founding member and cocoordinator of the Radical Philosophy Association and a frequent panelist at the annual New York Socialist Forum.

In addition to publishing articles and numerous book reviews, Anatole co-edited several anthologies: ‘Not for Sale: In Defense of Public Goods’ (2002) with Milton Fisk and Nancy Holmstrom, ‘Towards a New Socialism’ (2006) and ‘Taking Socialism Seriously’ (2012) both with Richard Schmitt.

In the 1960’s, San Francisco State University was a hotbed of student Vietnam War protest and the site of a student-led strike organized by the Third World Liberation Front to fight for an ethnic studies curriculum and the ultimately successful creation of the College of Ethnic Studies

(1968-69). As a young assistant professor at San Francisco State University, Anatole convened the Ad Hoc Faculty group which succeeded in convincing the American Federation of Teachers, SFSU chapter to go on strike in support of student demands.

Anatole is survived by his wife, Kathryn; his daughter, Glenna and her husband, Amir and their two children, Django and Ashi Buchbinder; Kathryn’s son, David Johnson-Igra, his wife, Kelly Earls and their children, Maya and Casey Igra; Anatole’s brother, William Anton and his wife, Karen and their children, John, Nanao, Mie, Mario, and Lila; his eleven grandnieces and nephews; his former wife, Bette Bentzman Anton; his first cousin, Julie Feibush; his daughter-in-spirit, Geraldine Urquidez; and his circle of caring friends, Joe Blum, Bob Davis, Levi Laub, Carolyn Loeb, Richard Peterson, Mike Pincus, Carol Seligman, and Peter Shapiro, whose love and affection sustained him.

Thanks to the Health and Wellness Team at Frank Residences, Campus for Jewish Living, for their excellent care and to his longtime caregivers, Jason Adams and Alfonzo Smith.

We remember Anatole for his powerful intellect, his big heart, fiery passion, and profound depth. His penetrating and critical understanding of the world and his fight for social justice did not make him cynical or pessimistic, even during the darkest of recent times. Though self-described as a radical, he was never dogmatic. His abilities as a scholar and activist to communicate that understanding profoundly influenced those around him. He was a valiant human being with a vast and general soul.

For donations in Anatole’s memory, please consider contributing to Doctors Without Borders at Doctors Without Borders, USA. P.O. Box 5030m, Hagerstown, Md. 2174-5030.

Long live Anatole, long live the courage of one’s ideas, long live the smiling mind of a generous philosopher.