In Memoriam

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, passed away on May 6, 2025, at age eighty-eight. Nye, a political scientist and influential figure in contemporary...

Joy Parr, professor emerita at the University of Western Ontario, passed away on May 12, 2024. Parr was a Canadian historian known for her work in the fields of labor and gender history as well as the history of technology. She was a 1999 William Lyon...

By Jeffry A. Frieden Alberto Alesina passed away last May, at the age of sixty-three. It will take me a long time to get over the shock and pain of his death, but I wanted to share some thoughts about this most intelligent of scholars and most generous of...

Richard N. Cooper, the Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics at Harvard University, passed away on December 23, 2020, at age eighty-six. He was a longtime Weatherhead Center affiliate—as a Faculty Associate since 1981; on the executive...

Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University, passed away on December 20, 2020, at age ninety. He was the founding director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and served in that capacity from 1980 to 1987...

Dov Ronen, political scientist and Holocaust survivor, passed away on July 30, 2021. After completing his PhD in 1969, Ronen was affiliated with several universities, including Purdue and Tufts, along with Harvard. In addition to his memoir, What on Earth...

James Sidanius, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James and professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University, passed away on June 29, 2021, at age 75. Sidanius became a Faculty Associate in 2017, after...

Theodore C. Bestor, Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard University, passed away on July 1, 2021, at age 69. Bestor—widely known for his scholarship on Japanese urban life, markets, and food culture—was a Faculty Associate...

John Ruggie, Berthold Beitz Research Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, passed away on September 16, 2021, at age 76. Ruggie was a Faculty Associate emeritus since 2002. One of his greatest contributions as a...

Ira Kukin, the founding benefactor of The Harvard Academy, died in New Jersey at the age of 93 on May 17, 2017. The Jewish saying “may his memory be a blessing” is, in this case, particularly appropriate. A great many scholars have benefitted from Ira...