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My professer, regrettably and very suddenly, passed away yesterday. He was my mentor for my graduation thesis. His teaching capabilities were not great, but he was a great man. Always helping out with everything he could and very supportive. I have very fond memories of him.

I have to hand in my thesis in two weeks time. Currently, I have his and another mentor's name on the front page to make it clear they are my supervisors.

How should I proceed with his name? I'd prefer not to erase it from my thesis, as he helped me and supported me. Would it be appropriate to leave it? Is it appropriate to add a little symbol like a cross next to his name to mark his passing? Should I just leave it the way it is now?

If it matters, I'm from the Netherlands.

ff524
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AnonymousGuest
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    It depends more on your institution that anything else. But I'd guess that you just put both names and that's it. – Fábio Dias Jun 02 '17 at 14:21
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    My sincere condolences. I would write a small note on one of the first pages. Ask your other mentor. – Karlo Jun 02 '17 at 14:25
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    In the UK, I wouldn't be surprised to see "The Late Professor M Jones" used. I've no idea what convention is used in the Netherlands. – Andrew Leach Jun 02 '17 at 15:34
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    You should check with your department on how to precisely handle certain aspects, because in some contexts your supervisor's name reflects his contribution to your work, and in other contexts his name reflects his approval of your thesis. For the former, obviously you want to still include his name and you probably have some choice in the matter whether or not to highlight his passing. For the latter, he cannot approve your final thesis (even if he was obviously approving of your work overall), but there may still be an appropriate way you can indicate his name to not leave him out. – Bryan Krause Jun 02 '17 at 17:10
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    Is this about a PhD thesis or a Master's thesis? For the former rules are more strict in general and I would recommend contacting the "pedel". For example, in the university where I did my PhD the title page of the thesis had to be approved by the university before you would even be admitted to the thesis defence procedure. – Pieter Naaijkens Jun 02 '17 at 19:11
  • It will always be Mozart's Requiem, never Sussmeyr's Requiem. – Michael Kay Jun 05 '17 at 07:57
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    @AndrewLeach That's a normal way to refer to a recently deceased person in running text but I wouldn't expect to see it, e.g., on the title page of a thesis. – David Richerby Jun 05 '17 at 09:57

4 Answers4

75

You should definitely keep the name. I've seen that people who passed away during some endeavor usually have their names surrounded with a rectangle.

You can also consider putting some In Memoriam page for your mentor somewhere at the beginning of the thesis. You should consult other people within your institutions culture to make sure that this doesn't come off as pretentious (although I see no reason why it should).

user3209815
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    He supervised you to the end. He should be listed as superviser. How you treat his passing away is a separate question. – Captain Emacs Jun 02 '17 at 14:26
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    Interesting. I normally see a dagger/obelisk after their name: Dr. John Doe † – user0721090601 Jun 02 '17 at 17:17
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    Yes @guifa is right, I don't think I've ever seen a bold rectangle in the Netherlands to indicate a deceased person. A dagger/obelisk is commonly used for that in the Netherlands. – Pieter Naaijkens Jun 02 '17 at 19:08
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    Rather unfortunate that it's called a "dagger"... – Dmiters Jun 02 '17 at 20:37
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    Thanks, I think I shall stick to the dagger symbol. I have never seen the use of a rectangle around a name in a paper in the Netherlands. – AnonymousGuest Jun 02 '17 at 21:12
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    @guifa: Note that the cross can be in direct conflict with footnote symbols used in some publications to indicate affiliations or contact info. – O. R. Mapper Jun 03 '17 at 07:00
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    @O.R.Mapper that's true, but how many styles still use the asterisk series for footnotes? (I'm sure they exist, but it's been a while since I've seen one). Another variation I see that would resolve the ambiguity is Dr. John Doe († 2017) – user0721090601 Jun 03 '17 at 14:30
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    Pardon my ignorance, but what makes a rectangle "bold"? Is it a color? A thick line? Can we have an example? Or other examples? – Aaron Hall Jun 03 '17 at 17:55
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    @AaronHall A think line I suppose. – yo' Jun 04 '17 at 20:25
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    You could also consider "(late)" – Mateen Ulhaq Jun 04 '17 at 22:23
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    @guifa Isn't that supposed to represent a Crucifix? – SGR Jun 05 '17 at 09:47
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    @MateenUlhaq It's perfectly normal to write "the late Professor Smith" when talking about a recently deceased person in running text but I've never seen "(late)" added to a name. – David Richerby Jun 05 '17 at 09:59
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    @SGR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography) : "The dagger is also used to indicate death,[3][24] extinction,[25] or obsolescence.[1][26] The asterisk and the dagger, when placed beside years, are used to indicate year of birth and year of death respectively.[3] When placed immediately before or after a person's name, it indicates that the person is deceased.[3][27][28][29] In this usage, it is referred to as the "death dagger".[30] [...] The dagger should not be confused with the Unicode characters "Latin cross" (✝, U+271D), [...] and other cross symbols." – mskfisher Jun 05 '17 at 11:51
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    @AaronHall I agree that "bold" is an extremely vague statement in this context and I removed it. As for an example, I devoted some time to find something adequate, but haven't had any luck in picking the right search term. I saw it on different occasions, from movie credits, book title pages to papers. It is very possible for it to be a "local" custom. Be it a dagger, crucifix, asterisk, or the "bold" rectangle, I think the point is the same: some designation, that makes it clear that the author is deceased. – user3209815 Jun 05 '17 at 13:25
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My sincere condolences. I am in the same situation: one of my advisors passed away 6 months before the end of my PhD.

Here are the issues I faced:

  • My thesis had to be supervised until the viva. OP (as it was the case for me) seems to have another supervisor. Talk with them and this shouldn't be an issue — especially if this other supervisor is in the academia.
    The PI of my research group also offered me to review my thesis even if it was not really within its field of expertize. You might otherwise find a more adequate other researcher ready to help you in your institution (just make sure that everyone in charge of your graduating program is in the loop when contacting new temporary advisors).

  • I had to put names on my thesis' cover. I just listed names of my two original supervisors. (I don't think that temporary supervising a thesis for two weeks is worth being listed as supervisor.) You can find here ideas on how to indicate your supervisor passed away.
    The solution I chose was to indicate nothing on the front cover, to add a dedication page ("In the memory of Professor John Doe") at the beginning of my thesis, and to thank the temporary advisor in the Acknowledgement section. In this section, I also refer to my deceased supervisor as "the late Prof. Doe".
    Reason for no special symbol on the cover is that your deceased supervisor was de facto your supervisor for your thesis. It thus must be listed. But my opinion is that you won't change your thesis cover in the future if another person passes away.
    So I think that the purpose of the cover is to indicate who supervised you (here, both supervisors, hence both names listed), not their current state (hence, no indication). The dedication page, imho, already makes obvious that this person passed away short before graduation.

  • This supervisor co-authored papers that were still under review. With the consent of my second advisor, I sent a note to journal's editors at the next round of review to explain them the situation. I asked them if it was possible to keep him/her acknowledged as author. It is then up to editors.
    Some journals have strict policies (e.g., having the written co-authoring consent from all authors regarding the accepted version — which we obviously cannot have.) Their name was then listed in the acknowledgment section.
    Most of them don't. What happened for a conference paper is that the name was listed along with the others, with a footnote explaining that the paper was finalized after their death.

TL;DR: You should list both names in your thesis. Regarding indicating that one of them passed away, I would keep it short and subtle. (My opinion is to add no specific indication on the front cover — see above.) For what regards on-going publications, talk with the editors the next time you contact them.

aparente001
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ebosi
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9

In my country we put a frame, with the name and surname inside the rectangle. This means that the author died in the process of creation.

TRiG
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SSimon
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    I have seen this also, mostly in documents/papers from Europe. – GEdgar Jun 02 '17 at 15:46
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    Yes,@GEdgar this country is in Europe – SSimon Jun 02 '17 at 15:58
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    I would make sure this practice is common in OP's country. Indeed, I am from western Europe. I have never seen such a practice, and I'm not sure I would have understood it without further context. (Appending a dagger to one's name † is the standard in my country.) – ebosi Jun 02 '17 at 16:13
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    @ebo Sometimes journals use the dagger like an asterisk for annotating institutions in an author list, for example. I'm going to have to start paying attention to where those journals are based, maybe they are expressing their opinions of certain authors in a way I didn't recognize... – Bryan Krause Jun 02 '17 at 18:44
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    @BryanKrause You are right. The sequence *, †, ‡, §, **, ††, etc. is the usual way to indicate multiple (foot)notes when preferring symbols over numbers) [cf. §14.20 in the Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed.] However, my intuitive reaction is always to think these authors are deceased when I see a dagger append to their name -- I only realize after a few moments that it links to their institution/email/etc. instead. – ebosi Jun 02 '17 at 18:56
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    @ebo Exactly. Note that I didn't mean my comment seriously, I was just recognizing for the first time that the dagger had a different meaning to some people, whereas I have always seen it just as part of the asterisk progression. – Bryan Krause Jun 02 '17 at 18:58
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    What country is your country? – user1717828 Jun 02 '17 at 19:19
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    @ebo I think this practice came in my coutry from Benelux, which is one of OP location – SSimon Jun 03 '17 at 02:47
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    "the author died in the process of creation" - let's hope the author's death only coincided with the creation phase. – O. R. Mapper Jun 03 '17 at 07:05
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    Hmmm. @O.R.Mapper creation of any sort, either book, or movie or series, – SSimon Jun 03 '17 at 15:29
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    @SSimon: I was alluding to the possible misunderstanding that the author passed away as a direct result of the creation process, rather than just at the same time, for other reasons. – O. R. Mapper Jun 03 '17 at 18:04
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    it doesn't have a sense in this context, but yeah, It can be in some circumstances, one actor died on the set and they put this rectangle when broadcasting a movie. so I think your allusion can be correct. – SSimon Jun 04 '17 at 05:29
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    @ebo While a crucifix may indicate that the author died, a dagger surely shouldn't be used for that. – David Richerby Jun 05 '17 at 10:01
1

In case it helps, I want to add an answer from my own experience.

My PhD Supervisor suddenly and unexpectedly passed away before I handed in my PhD memory. The bulk of the work was already done, but I still needed some advice and supervision to prepare the final document.

My University allowed me to keep her name in the records as first supervisor. I added a cosupervisor, who really helped and encouraged me to finish the job.

I wrote some special words to my first supervisor in the 'Acknowledgements' section of the PhD memory, and also added a special text at the end of the document (more precisely, I added the poem 'When Great Trees Fall' by Maya Angelou) which was implicitly dedicated to her. The thesis was in Spanish, but I kept the poem in English.

A full electronic version of the PhD thesis can be found on http://hdl.handle.net/10251/46373 .

Vicent
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