So sorry to hear about her passing. She was a great neighbor…always friendly and passionate about gardening. She will be missed! especially at the neighborhood picnic.

Very sad to hear of Jen’s passing. I have such wonderful memories of her. She was an incredibly heart-filled, kind, genuine, and hardworking person. My deepest condolences to her family. 💓 She will be missed.

This a very great loss for the Philosophy Department at UNH, and for all of Jen’s friends, colleagues, and students there. She was an outstanding teacher and a wonderful colleague. We will all miss her tremendously.

Roger & I will miss waving at Jenn every morning and chatting about some house project either she or we were working on. We always had so much to talk about. I wont forget when she showed up smiling with a bunch of flowers when we first moved in, and we how we ended up having dinner and playing mahjong with our group. We will miss our dear friend. Our deepest condolences to her dad and her family, and to Luna.

Jen cared so much about her students. She was an incredible, award-winning teacher. I team-taught with her and learned so much from her approach to pedagogy. She will be deeply missed by faculty and students.

Jen was a superb teacher and a warm, friendly, supportive colleague. Her sense of humor and her dedication to the mission of teaching were always guiding lights. I was fortunate to have known her and worked with her.

Jen was a wonderful faculty member at UNH and she will be missed. As others have said, a great loss for the Philosophy Department and College.

Jen was such a gifted teacher and a wonderful colleague and friend. I was so lucky to have taught with her and learned from her lectures. It was always such a joy to run into her in campus. Such sad news and what a loss to UNH.

I am saddened and shocked by this news. Jen was a wonderful teacher and a great colleague. I taught with her several times and learned a lot from her. She will be greatly missed by her students, her colleagues, and the university community.

Jen embodied warmth. She was gentle. She was a magnificent instructor, and she minded about her students.
I always enjoyed my talks with her. We would laugh about the goings-on of our beloved animal companions. We shared ideas about what we were doing in our classes. I am glad that I knew her and had her as a colleague. I send my condolences to her father and her family. Jen, I will miss you.

I am deeply saddened by the news that my former colleague and friend, Jen Armstrong, has passed. She was a superb teacher from whom I learned a great deal, and a warm and genuine human being who leaves us much too young. My condolences to her family and friends. I will miss her.

I taught with Jen over many years and found her the best of teachers and the kindest of colleagues. She seemed interested in everything and everybody–except herself, as she was altruistic to a fault. It was a blessing to share the world with her.

This is devastating news. Jen was a superb teacher and lovely person. I feel fortunate to have worked with her. I am so sorry for your loss.

I was struck dumb by this terrible news. The last time I spoke with Jen was in UNH’s Lot B where I was admiring her “cogito” license plate as I have since I first arrived at UNH a gazillion years ago. We chatted about how fun it was to teach together–well, I told her it was fun to teach with her at any rate! I always loved team-teaching with her. I learned a tremendous amount along with our students about philosophy and how to be a superstar teacher. She made Augustine if not entirely likable, a compelling and sympathetic character. I’ll never forget how she described how shattered he was by the early death of a friend in his youth. And I’ll never forget the time she started class by distributing small cans of Play-Doh—note the play on “Plato” and “Play-Doh here!—to the class and asked us to mold a spoon with it. She asked us to observe our spoons and then compare them to the spoons of our neighbors. She then asked the students to explain what constituted “spoonness” or why and how our little Play-Doh models qualified as spoons. And with that we were off and running on neo-Platonism. Unforgettable. I had so hoped to teach with her again. At the very least, I will continue to bring all I’ve learned from her to my classroom for as long as I can. I miss you, Jen. I am honored to have known you. You made me better in so many ways. Thank you.

I remember my first semester at UNH in Fall 2010, where I met Jen initially when she hosted a party at her home and I was a guest of a guest. I was fortunate to meet her stunning dogs and it was immediately evident with their room how she pampered them with love. They had with Jen, without hyperbole, a magical relationship.

I am truly saddened by this news as for a number of years I would see Jen regularly coming and going to class on the 1st or 2nd floor of Hamilton Smith as she seemed to prefer mornings and we’d exchange words of playful encouragement like “keep on truckin” or “it’s the penultimate week of the semester!”.

Her passing is a major loss for UNH COLA and the broader Seacoast community.

Thank you, dear Jen, for inspiring good teaching and the long haul of the profession.

Love and eternal peace,

Steph

Reflecting on the countless hours spent with Jen in my office, tackling some of the quirkiest computer issues in my career, brings a fond sense of nostalgia. Our discussions about work, life, and our beloved pups named Luna created a unique bond. Jen’s infectious laughter will be sincerely missed.

Condolences to all who knew her and enjoyed her company.

Dee-Ann

I am deeply saddened by the news of Jen’s passing. Like many at UNH, I had the pleasure and fortune to teach with her. As a junior faculty member, I was so grateful for her generosity and kindness and to have her as a model for how to go about teaching and being a colleague. I, along with the students, learned so much. It was also always a joy to run into her around campus and compare notes on how the semester was going. Hers is a great loss. My sincerest condolences to her family.

Jen embodied warmth. When I think of Jen I recall the soft and gentle tone with which she spoke to others and to me. I was Jen’s student in her logic class and also a TA for her business ethics class. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed her kindness and care throughout my time at UNH.

My heart dropped at the news of her passing. Jen, thank you so much for everything that you’ve taught me and all the others who have had the fortune of crossing paths with you. My deepest condolences to her family. I wish them warmth and love as they navigate her passing.

Prof. Armstrong, thank you so much for what you’ve done for me. Prof. Armstrong was my thesis advisor, and without her guidance and her encouragement of my writing, ideas, and creative process, I would never have gotten it written and I wouldn’t be where I am today. I attribute her words of affirmation and making me write out all my ideas on her whiteboard in her office which she kept up until we were done for the rest of the semester as the reason why I’m even in the current Masters program I’m in.

I wished to have let her know of my current position and how much I owe to her. Sending only love and warmth to her family.

Professor Armstrong was an incredible spirit who will be missed greatly in the Philosophy Department at UNH. She was a wonderful teacher, and she often used her German Shephard, Luna, in her class examples. We would share pictures of our dogs and laugh about how pampered they were. I loved her kind heart and genuine care she had for all of her students.

My deepest condolences to her family and friends. What a huge loss to our community. I will miss her very much.

Oh, my dear Jen… I miss you more than words can say.

How do I encapsulate 40 years of friendship? Through college, grad school and then both teaching at UNH, we joked that I was her shadow. Wherever she went, I would show up a few years later. We had road trips, movies nights, pizza with jalapeños (I picked them off, but she loved the heat), and long conversations about everything under the sun. Jen was one of the smartest people I’ve known and one whose counsel I valued greatly.

I visited her last week and I thought we would have more time together than we did. My heart goes out to her father, brother, and extended family. Jen, you were loved, loved, loved!

As a philosophy major at UNH, Jen was my teacher from 2007-2011. She was wonderful; energetic; friendly; receptive; and more. I am very glad to have run into her the last time I dropped by the hallways of Ham-Smith, a couple of years ago. As philosophy teacher myself now, I think often about what makes one a good teacher, and Jen always comes to mind. It is terrible that she is no longer with us, no longer able to teach the UNH students. She will be missed.

Jen and I were colleagues almost right from the beginning of my time at UNH. I remember the parties at her house, and her generous attempts at making me a more physically fit human being. But most of all I remember her quiet probing philosophical questions–always with a smile. Jen brought an interest in philosophy of religion to the department, and in the philosophy of beauty, the body and fashion. Other colleagues will undoubtedly mention her excellent teaching with a team of colleagues in the Humanities Program. Jen loved dogs and bicycles, and shared those enthusiasms with all of us. She will be deeply missed.

Jen was smart, sensible, witty. A bright light. It was a pleasure and a privilege to teach alongside her. So very saddened to learn of her passing- my heartfelt condolences to her family and close friends.

Jen was a wonderful friend with my son’s growing up. She was a very intelligent and talented person with a wonderful personality. I was a friend of her mom for years and spent time at their home in Salem Ma and in Portsmouth. This was a terrible shock! My condolences to her dad and brother and family and friends. She will be missed.

I often had the privilege of sitting in on Jen’s classes. What was it like in there? Here’s an example of a visit to her Philosophy and the Arts course.

The theme of the session was economic class and country music. The meeting began with music videos typical of recent country music, including Lee Brice’s “Drinking Class.” Students pulled out themes from the song: blue collar work, trucks, American flags, hard living, bars, motorcycles, muscle cars, farms, lots of hay bales, etc.

Jen divided the class into “Black Hat” and “White Hat” groups—by circulating actual printouts of black and white cowboy hats—and paired these groups to argue for the goodness or badness of this music by using various theories they had studies. The students were all on task and happily debating in groups, and Jen circulated and engaged with each group. She knew all of their names and they all seemed comfortable with her and with their classmates. She added a lot of positive energy and drew out some of the quieter students as she circulated. The discussion shifted with groups finding new pairs to argue with, and it grew into a sort of debate with the White Hats and Black Hats trying to convince each other of their best points. Students were talkative and engaged throughout.

The class came back together for a general discussion of the strengths and weakness of current country music, and in doing so made explicit the various themes and tropes common to the genre as exemplified by several more videos Jen played for the class. As themes included hard work, spare time, hope that things will all work out, and nationalism, the discussion really took off in connecting the dots between the reasons that people might be drawn to the art form. Students described the various class anxieties at work in country music, and Jen capitalized on this with a classic “give it to the man” revenge song from Johnny Cash.

In this context Jen asked the students to explain how Stockholm Syndrome might apply to country music, and she collected the written answers from everyone to review. She then played a portion of an interview with Toby Keith explaining his “Made in America” ethos. This clip struck a nerve with many of the students (as it did with me), and the remaining time the students considered the tensions in this art form: on the one hand, country music is easy listening that makes you “feel good” and want “BBQ and a beach.” But on the other hand, it signifies some of the most depressing aspects of American culture and seems to be weaponized against some of the most oppressed to encourage them to accept their lot.

The class was informative, fun, and often led the students to profound insights relevant to their daily lives. The students engaged and disagreed in solidarity. At one point one point a student made a comment about tossing hay bales and I heard another classmate say under his breath: “I love that kid—he really brings it every class.” I thought that was telling of the environment Jen created in that the students were enjoying each other even as they argued about politically charged issues in aesthetics.

Jen’s life work was teaching philosophy, and she created these sorts of occasions every day at the office. She was a masterful practitioner of student-centered active learning. This is a terrible loss for our community, and I wish my own kids could have taken a class with Jen. Jen’s spirit will live in all of the lessons we learned from her. May her memory be a blessing

Jen was a wonderful colleague, thoughtful and warm.

I remember stopping by her office to discuss whatever teaching challenges I was encountering that week and always being lifted up by her advice. I admire Jen’s knowledge of philosophy; she could teach almost anything and she offered insights for my research that pointed me in the right direction.

Jen, I will miss you and remember you.

I’ve only just learned this sad news from our mutual colleague, David Richman, currently visiting his family in Germany, and like me, another Humanities prof lucky to have taught with Jen. Such a pleasure, learning from Jen–and an even greater pleasure to watch our students learning from her. She was the nonpariel of witty powerpoints, and always had time for the students (and colleagues!) whose interest and curiosity she was so good at inspiring. UNH, her colleagues, and her many students share your loss. I hope you can find comfort in Jen’s considerable and enduring legacy: all those many years of passionate, engaged teaching, passing along to generations not only lessons learned, but the joy of learning she so well exemplified.

Jen was the most imaginative, engaged, empathetic teacher with whom I have ever shared a classroom full of undergraduates eager to fulfil a requirement. For them, and for me, the class always ended too soon on the days when Jen taught, no matter the subject. She brought them all to life. Before I team-taught with Jen in Humanities, I hated everything about powerpoints, from designing them, to projecting them, to watching them. I accepted them as a necessary evil for conveying information to students in a tiered lecture room. Then there was Hegel in a dialogue about a substantive concept (it was years ago) coming to life on Jen’s slide. I learned so much about teaching from teaching with Jen. Not only our students, but all of us on the faculty who were privileged to share her classroom are wiser human beings. My thoughts go out to her family, and to all the students who have yet to hear.

Professor Armstrong’s passing leaves a profound void in the intellectual landscape she so brilliantly illuminated. Her guidance and sharp intellect sparked in me, and countless others, a reawakening of what it truly means to think critically. Her logic classes weren’t just lessons; they were jolts of inspiration, urging us to question, analyze, and build stronger intellectual muscles.

While her absence is a deep and untimely loss, her light endures in the minds she ignited. The shame isn’t in her story’s sudden ending, but in the world being a little less bright without her in it. Yet, even as we grieve, hope remains. I, and every student touched by her passion, carry a spark of her legacy. We will strive to do her proud, both in the pursuit of philosophical truth and in navigating the complexities of life, forever grateful for the fire she lit within us.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to Prof. Armstrong’s family, her dog Luna and the field of study she loved so much.

We were so very saddened to hear of Jen’s passing. I enjoyed all the times we would chat together when I was walking my kitty in the neighborhood the same time she was walking Luna, and also at the neighborhood picnic where we shared stories about UNH. She was an incredibly dedicated professor and was such a wonderful kind soul. The neighborhood will not be the same without her. She will be very missed ❤️

Jen’s courses at UNH were among the most impactful and memorable to me. The energy in her classes that several of her colleagues have described here, I experienced as her student. Each and every day I was excited to come to class, and each and every day she found innovative, deeply engaging, and thought-provoking ways to challenge our assumptions about the world in which we find ourselves. And she made it a lot of fun. Every day of class, as we entered the room, she’d have a perfectly curated song playing that related specifically to that day’s material. Her dedication and passion was clear in everything she did.

It convinced me to minor in philosophy and take as many of her courses as I could.
In the years since I have taken her classes, my friends and family could tell you that I have on many occasions recounted specific lectures, demonstrations, examples, and discussions from those classes.
What I learned in her classes has shaped who I am — or better yet, led me to shape myself. I carry this with me in both my personal and professional lives, and I promise to keep sharing with those around me what I gained from my time in Jen’s classes.
Jen, you are an amazing role model, and UNH will not be the same without you.

Jen was kind and would do anything to help her students. I was one of them and one of her TAs. She was one of the people who made my undergraduate experience great.

It was so much fun to have Jenny with my family here in Germany more than 40 years ago. Although we only had a few weeks together, since I had the pleasure to stay with Jenny’s family in Salem while she got to know German life together with my family, I commemorate her as a cheerful, smart and clever friend. I will always be thankful for this unique experience that has had a decisive influence on my life, since it was her decision to share this adventure with us. Jenny will always be in my heart. My thoughts are with her family of which I had the honor to meet many of them during my stay in Salem. Ruhe in Frieden.

So traurig zu hören, dass Jenny nicht mehr lebt.
Jenny war vor langer Zeit für ein halbes Jahr als Austauschschülerin bei uns in der Familie.
Es war für alle eine große Bereicherung.
Sie hat von uns mit wachsender Begeisterung das Häkeln und Stricken gelernt.
Uns hat sie beigebracht, wie man Brownies backt und was man für eine tolle Tomatensoße zu Nudeln
machen kann. Diese Soße heißt bei uns auch heute immer noch “Jenny-Soße”.
Mach’s gut, Jenny.

Professor Armstrong was the embodiment of brilliance and kindness. A remarkable professor that I had the privilege of learning from, and the honor of knowing. She led her classes with grace and enthusiasm, and always encouraged everyone to do their best. She will be dearly missed.

To Chris and Mr. Armstrong, my deepest condolences. I was just thinking to other day of walking to Witchcraft Heights Elementary School with Jenny and Chris.

Sincerely yours,

Eileen (Hebert) Yokuda

Jen was an exemplary colleague, a good friend, and a loyal and dedicated member of our department. We came from the same philosophy grad program, and even then, she took to teaching like a fish to water. She flourished in that role and did all in her power to see to it that her students flourished as well. She was extremely creative in her approach to teaching, and extremely generous to her students, but also to her colleagues, and to her department. Let me remark on the latter two. I was invited to keynote at a conference overseas that would result in my missing a week of classes if I accepted. I knew Jen had taught logic before (one of the two courses I was teaching), and I asked her if she could take *one* of the two logic days I would miss, wanting to pay her at my rate if she agreed. Jen offered to teach both missed logic days and then asked “what about your other class, Paul? The other was a class she had not taught before (no one else had), but she insisted that she wanted to step in for that one as well and that it would even be fun though hectic. She did and with rave reviews from the students for both classes. Once back, she went on to adamantly refuse any payment and I was left only with “please let me know, Jen, if I can ever return the favor”. That, alas, will not be possible now. For the department, she volunteered to teach our Ethics for Business courses even though that was a very challenging course to develop (co-teaching and co-coordinating and in large classes) and it took her away from regularly teaching a variety of course that she just loved to teach. We were working on trying to relieve her of that supererogatory commitment that went on longer than initially expected, but that too, alas, will not be possible now.
Jen taught in the Humanities program as well as philosophy, always ready to develop a new class, learn new things, and teach in new ways. I chaired the nomination committee for her teaching excellence award (https://www.unh.edu/awards/recipient/2018/armstrong-jennifer) and the praise came from all quarters, students (in abundance), but also faculty in Philosophy, faculty in the Humanities Program, and other faculty in COLA. Jen was our first Principal Lecturer and she became a model and leader for others in COLA, much admired by faculty, staff, students and administrators.
You also always knew where Jen stood. There was no hidden agenda. She could disagree firmly, but always civilly. She was generous in acknowledging the merits of other positions be they philosophical or be they policy debates in our department or elsewhere. She exhibited excellent and balanced judgment. She was one of our very most admirable members in my not inconsiderable time here. I will miss her a great deal. We are diminished without her, and I am so saddened by her loss.

Thank you for all that you did for us Jen. You were a teacher, a guide, and a friend. I know myself and those around me were profoundly impacted by you, and will never forget what you gave us.

Jen opened her home to me for two years while I was a struggling philosophy student. I can’t describe the gratitude I felt and the admiration I had and continued to have for her, even after I graduated. I remember watching presidential debates with her like they were a sports competitions but for logic instead, her consistent and unwavering support and willingness to discuss philosophy well past working hours, her unfathomable wisdom and insight — always with a smile. Her teaching style was accessible, thoughtful, understanding, patient and enthusiastic, with an impressive depth and breadth of knowledge. Her positive and supportive demeanor, her patience, generosity and the knowledge she shared were treasured incalculably by all of us and were integral to making my time — and that of others — at the philosophy department invaluable. Jen, you are dearly and sorely missed by everyone lucky enough to know you.

Jen Armstrong taught classes I enjoyed so immensely during my time studying philosophy. She embodied what a good teacher should be, and cared so much about her students. Along with taking her classes, I completed an independent study with her on modernist female philosophers, and attended wonderful parties at her house-these memories will always be with me, and I am so saddened to hear of her passing. I took my first bioethics course with Jen, and it alighted in me a desire to study it further after my time at UNH, later attending a Bioethics institute and continuing my studies in the field to this day. Thank you for making such a difference in the lives of your students, Professor Armstrong. Your impact will not be forgotten.

I won’t forget Professor Armstrong’s remarkable presence in the classroom as an undergraduate at UNH. I always left one of her lectures feeling more engaged as a student and a person. Her energy was infectious. Thank you for your warmth and brilliance, Jen, you will be missed.

Jen was synonymous with Philosophy at UNH. Almost every COLA student took her introductory logic course, since it fulfilled the university’s “quantitative reasoning” gen-ed requirement. This meant that students (like myself) who believed themselves unqualified to deal with math courses often ended up taking the Philosophy Department’s logic offering – and ended up meeting Jen. There was no better teacher for them to meet. She made a scary topic tractable, and beyond teaching the subject matter, she taught her students confidence – that they were smart and capable and could handle tough material. It was one of my life’s great privileges to number among her pupils.

We cherish her many years of guidance; we mourn that there were not more of them.

We’ll miss you, Jen. Thank you for everything.

I was a TA for one of Jen’s introductory logic courses back around 2006 (my first TA experience). That was a big logistical operation, with over 100 students and multiple lab sections. Jen led that with poise, and I learned from her example.

She also hosted a couple philosophy department parties at her house, where I met a number of people early on in my time at UNH.

Jen will be missed!