The department is saddened to share the news that Holmes Rolston III passed away on February 12, 2025.  There is no way we can adequately express the impact Holmes had on his field, on CSU, and on the broader academic world. He was a singular individual leaving a monumental legacy, with tremendous significance to many of us, both personally and professionally.  

Holmes Rolston III was University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus.  He was the author of "Philosophy Gone Wild" (1986), "Conserving Natural Value" (1994), "Genes, Genesis, and God" (1999), "A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth" (2012, 2020), among other works. His many book chapters and articles have been reprinted and anthologized widely, and his work has been taught in colleges and universities around the world.

Among Rolston’s many honors were giving the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1997 and being awarded the Templeton Prize in Religion by Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace in 2003.  Rolston was past and founding president of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, a founding editor of the journal Environmental Ethics, and a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion.  In 2009, Christopher J. Preston published an intellectual biography, Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston III. For more on Rolston’s life and legacy, please read this CSU tribute as well as his obituaries in the New York Times and the Denver Gazette. 

Rolston kept an extensive list of his publications, presentations, interviews, and awards on his personal webpage. Physical copies of some of his book collection may be found in the Rolston Library within Eddy Hall 120 at Colorado State University.