True that. There were intellectual controversies around his ideas, but they were the respected, responsible, actually intellectual kind that make interesting reading and can't be reduced to catch phrases.

That is, he had long-running arguments with other scientists who's work I also adore (Pinker, for one).

Huh...just cruised the wikipedia page on Gould, specifically Gould vs. Evolutionary Psychology, and now I'm more interested to read up on it, if only because the (highly selective!) quotes on wikipedia about "biological potentiality vs biological determinism" seem to be exactly what Pinker writes about in The Language Instinct.