Seymour was born on Aug. 30, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan, to William B. and Betty Davis Chatman. He attended Central High School. Seymour was part of a large extended family in the local Jewish community, though his immediate family was small. He lost his father while in his teens and his younger brother Michael while in his 20s.
Seymour attended Wayne State University in Detroit, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1948. In 1956, he earned a Ph.D. in English and Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Early in his career, Seymour worked on a State Department translation...
Felipe R. Gutterriez (1949 – 2020), an extraordinary teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend who, as a thinker and true intellectual, generously shared his insights and ways of thinking with many. For many decades a model of intellectual generosity and rhetorical engagement, Felipe continues to serve as an inspiration to his students and peers. He came to Rhetoric at Berkeley as a graduate student in 1987. As a student then teacher in the Department until his retirement in December 2018, he touched or transformed the lives of generations of undergraduate and graduate students. He did so not...