On the day that Associate Professor of Philosophy Nancy Daukas turned six, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

“That’s when I realized how big the world was,” Daukas said. “Everything came to this standstill … there was no birthday party that year.”

Daukas was born in Germany because her father was in the service. When she was a year old, her family moved to the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut.

“It was a traditional upbringing,” said Daukas. “Every summer for two weeks my family would go to the beach.”

After graduating high school, she went to Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Penn., where she met her partner Eric Downing and realized her passion: philosophy.

“I walked into a philosophy class, and by the end of the class, I was hooked,” said Daukas.

After a year, she got what she called “California Fever.” After transferring to UC Berkeley, she bought an old VW Beatle and drove it across the country with Downing.

Daukas lived in California for 12 years, finished her undergraduate degree in philosophy, and took a couple years off. During that time, she managed an open-air produce market.

“California, said Daukas, “was where I belonged.”

“The light, the landscape, the social environment … it’s just a really great place to be. You just live outdoors. I like to run, hike, swim in the open water, and it’s a great place for that.”

While at UC Berkeley, Daukas was a teaching assistant. One night she saw a startling scene at a Grateful Dead concert.

“One of my students, who was having a rough semester, climbed up on stage, threw herself onto (the keyboard player) Brent Mydland’s arms, and received a full-on mouth kiss from Brent,” said Daukas. “One of the roadies picked her up, threw her onto his shoulder, and carried her offstage. The next time I saw her (in class), she was beaming.”

While living in California, Daukas traveled with Downing throughout Europe, staying mostly in Germany, Italy, and Greece.

“It was exciting to be somewhere totally new,” Daukas said. “I was born in Germany, and even though we left when I was a year old, I had felt this pull towards it.”

After they came back, she started graduate school (still at UC Berkeley) in 1982. She and Downing moved to Cambridge, Mass., in 1995, where she finished her dissertation on contemporary responses to Cartesian skepticism.

She married Downing in 1989, and their daughter Jessi was born in 1990.

“We’ve been together since we were 18,” Daukas said.

While in Cambridge, she and Downing were looking for teaching jobs. Daukas received an offer at Guilford, and her partner found a position in Chapel Hill.

“I would have never guessed that I would have ended up in North Carolina,” Daukas said. “I am so lucky. I have family scattered in the most beautiful places.”