James A. Diefenbeck

Born on July 6th of 1917 in El Paso, Texas, James Allyn "Pete" Diefenbeck's father was in the US Army under General Pershing while hunting for Poncho Villa in Mexico for two years. When he was a year old, his family moved to San Antonio. A year later, they moved to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where his mother was from and where Dr. Diefenbeck grew up. He later graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, where he was inspired by John Williams Miller (of Paradox and Cause fame), who is becoming known in America as one of its greatest philosophers.

 Upon graduating from Williams College with a B.A. in English, Dr. Diefenbeck matriculated at Harvard's Graduate School in the PhD program in Comparative Literature until the outbreak of World War Two, upon which he became a fighter pilot and air instructor until 1951 when he quit during the Korean conflict, as he was asked to escort artillery strikes.  Dr. Diefenbeck was a fighter pilot during World War Two who flew ninety missions against the Luftwaffe, after which he received a Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal when he was shot down in France and never told anyone until a few months before he died, (sadly, in 2005).
Pete Diefenbeck was impeccably well-mannered, impeccably dressed, a gourmet cook, world traveler, revered by his students and, in my estimation, the greatest mind of the past two millenium.  He truly was a "man's man" and a philosopher's philosopher.  In my estimation, his name will be as well known in 2000 years as Plato's is now.   I call him "the Father of American philosophy".
  He told a doctor (Kelley), "You have children, so you can live through your children.  I don't have children.  So I have to live through myself!"  He lived rather strenuously through himself, sometimes re-writing one of his many papers over forty seven times!  His house was beautiful, like a living museum.
  Here is a poem that he omitted in the printed copy of his book, The Celebration (of Subjective Thought).
  "Yet Homer would not have sung
    Had he not been certain,
    beyond dreams
    That out of life's own self-delight had sprung
    The abounding, glittering jet!"

The diamond light (the discriminating light mentioned in Oriental Philosophy) was in his eyes, which were blue and had scintillating, if you looked into his eyes you could see the sparks coming out from the depths of his innermost heart.