Robert Cumming, 87; Scholar Wrote Books on Phenomenology

Robert Cumming, 87, a former philosophy professor at Columbia University who wrote several books about phenomenology, died Aug. 25 in Manhattan of unspecified causes.

Cumming, who taught for 37 years before retiring in 1985, became an expert on the study of how perceptions of events shape a person’s reality. Among his books was a four-volume work published between 1991 and 2002 with the titles: “Phenomenology and Deconstruction: The Dream is Over,” “Method and Imagination,” “Breakdown in Communication” and “Solitude.”

Born on Cape Breton Island in Canada, Cumming graduated from Harvard University before serving in the Free French Army during World War II. He earned the French Croix de Guerre for bravery and the Legion of Merit.

After the war, he earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago and joined the Columbia faculty, where he headed the philosophy department from 1961 to 1964.