George Boas


George Boas was a Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He received his education at Brown University, obtaining both a BA and MA in Philosophy there, after which he studied shortly at Columbia, and finally at UC Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in 1917.
In 1921, Boas was hired at Johns Hopkins by Professor A.O. Lovejoy as an historian of philosophy. Boas' tenure at Hopkins was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a Commander in the Naval Reserve. One of his undergraduate students was Alger Hiss, with whom he kept in contact.
In 1952 at Johns Hopkins, Owen Lattimore was indicted by the McCarran Committee for perjury. At Boas' initiative, a Lattimore Defense Fund was set up in January 1953 with the goal to gather funds to pay for the legal fees of the defense.
He retired from the school in 1956, continuing his scholarly career with a fellowship at the Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University and as visiting Andrew W. Mellon chair at the University of Pittsburgh.

Major works