Gary Martin Seay

About Gary

Gary M. Seay, age 77, died on July 11, 2025 in St. Cloud Minnesota. He was born in Altus, Oklahoma, on November 4 1947 to Joe and Roselle (Dulaney) Seay. After graduating from Frederick’s High School in Oklahoma in 1966, he earned a B.A. (philosophy) from Oklahoma City University in 1970, an M.A. (philosophy) from Rice University in 1972, and a Ph.D.(philosophy) with distinction from Georgetown in 1979 with a dissertation on metaethics.

Gary had many professional achievements as a university professor. At Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York (CUNY), he taught logic, moral philosophy and medical ethics from 1979 until his retirement in 2018 and served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies from 2012 to 2017. Other of his teaching appointments were at Baruch and Hunter College of CUNY, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Oklahoma City University, and Georgetown University. In 2016, during his sabbatical year, he was appointed Visiting Fellow at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities).

Among Gary’s publications are scholarly articles, together with six books that he either co-authored or co-edited with his collaborator, friend, and wife Susana Nuccetelli, whom he met in 1991 when she applied for a position at his department. They were married in 1996. He served in various roles at the American Philosophical Association, the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs (New York Group), the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking, and the Ethics Committee of the New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York.

The son of a pharmacist, although Gary always admired science, since early in life he was attracted to the humanities and the arts. Above all, philosophy but also history, music, film, and literature. After an early brush at playing instruments in his high school band, he became an avid listener of classical music and the American songbook. On and off, he was an active cyclist, a 3-miles runner in New York’s Central Park and Riverside Park, and an occasional gym goer and international traveler. Gary also loved the company of family and friends. During the last years of his life, he regularly attended the Sunday conversations with friends from St. Cloud State University at the local Barnes and Noble coffee shop. As his health declined, he made new friends among the wonderful caregivers who made it possible for him to die peacefully at home.

Gary was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife Susana Nuccetelli of St. Cloud Minnesota, and his brother J. David Seay and sister-in-law Anita Seay, both of Palm Beach Florida.

memorial service

Funeral/Cremation Provider: Crescent Tide Cremation Services