He was an inspired teacher, agile thinker, gifted administrator as chair of his university’s philosophy department and later as principal of Innis College, as well as an enduring optimist about the future of a more democratic world. He impressed on his students that democratic engagement requires collective action, not merely casting your ballot once every few years.
Bob Rae, Canada’s permanent ambassador at the United Nations, while not a former student, knew Prof. Cunningham and recalled in an e-mail: “He was a gentle and thoughtful man, consistently on the left but not dogmatic in his approach to discussion. He was revered by his students and colleagues and was a beloved figure on campus.
He studied philosophy at Indiana University as an undergrad, where he met a student radical, Charnie Guettel, who became his first wife. When he enrolled in the master’s program at the University of Chicago, he fell in with a group of Jewish students who opened his eyes to the existence of prejudice, which eventually led him to embrace a Marxist perspective.
As chair of philosophy from 1982 to 1988, he helped to revitalize the department at U of T, which had not made new hires for some time. He was president of the Canadian Philosophical Association and travelled widely to speak at academic conferences as well as to research conflicts within democracies. After his first book, he wrote only about democratic theory, building bridges between philosophy and political science, a faculty to which he was cross-appointed.
His commitment to democracy went beyond the theoretical. He walked the walk, engaging with community organizations whether he lived in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood or later in Vancouver’s crowded West End.