Robert Carroll, philosopher, CSI fellow, and prominent skeptic widely known for his online (and print) Skeptics Dictionary, died from pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer August 25, 2016. He was seventy-one. In his last hours, he was surrounded by family and Bob Dylan songs. His legacy lives on through his work, his writings, his inspiration, and in the thousands of students who sat in his classroom where he taught critical thinking skills. Our heart goes out to his family, especially his wife of forty-eight years, Leslie; daughters, Jennifer and Allison; sons-in-law, Rodney and Daniel; and his grandchildren, Olivia and Flynn.
Before there was Wikipedia, there was The Skeptic’s Dictionary. It was conceived and managed by this one amazing person, Robert Todd Carroll. He started it in 1994 after taking a community education class with his wife, Leslie, learning about the Internet, email, and HTML.