Jerome Bruner Memorial at NYU Law School

On Sept. 9, 200 colleagues, friends, and family from as far as Europe gathered at New York University Law School to salute the late NYU professor Jerome S. Bruner (1915-2016), who passed away on June 5 at age 100. Bruner was celebrated as a gracious and scholarly Renaissance man who taught at NYU Law School from 1991-2012 (ages 86-97), after teaching at Harvard, Oxford, and the New School.

The memorial was hosted by Bruner's alumnus Howard Gardner of Harvard University, and opened by NYU Dean of Law Trevor Morrison. It included poetry, musical interludes, remembrances by his son Whitley Bruner other family members, and colleagues, including Jose Luis Linaza Iglesias from Madrid; Patricia Greenfield from UCLA; Carla Rinaldi from Italy; Daniel Rose of New York, and his partner Eleanor Fox of NYU Law School. This was followed by a lively reception where many spoke informally.

Many inspiring tapes with Bruner and his work appear on Youtube. One of these is his joyous 100th birthday celebration in 2015 with the Manhattan Psychological Association, where he is saluted by his friend Oliver Sacks (at minutes 44-50 of the 53-minute tape).