In Memoriam

John M. ‘Jack’ Barnaby ’32

John M. “Jack” Barnaby ’32, a legendary coach of Harvard’s squash and tennis teams, died Feb. 13 in a nursing home in Lexington. He was 92.

Barnaby was the most successful coach in Harvard history. He headed the men’s squash and tennis teams from 1937 to 1976 and the women’s squash team for three years. In his 42 years of coaching, Barnaby’s teams racked up 745 victories, 17 national squash championships and 16 Ivy League titles.

“He always believed that there wasn’t any use in developing a skill if it didn’t turn you into a better person. He was an unabashed believer in that,” said David Fish ’72, the Harvard men’s tennis coach and former men’s squash coach.

“So much of what I do is what Jack taught me to do,” Fish said. “It’s an invaluable help to the start of your own career to have a coach who’s coached for 40 years.”

Barnaby was a strong supporter of the development of professional squash in the 1970s and the formation of the World Professional Squash Association. He was also a pioneer for the certification of squash pros.

Barnaby’s 1979 book, Winning Squash Racquets, passed on his knowledge of the sport and remains well-regarded today for its focus on the mental aspects of the game.

Guy J. Ciannavei ’55

Guy J. Ciannavei ’55, a former director of Harvard’s University Information Systems (UIS) who presided over radical technological changes in the 1970s, died March 14 in Norwood. He was 68.

Ciannavei, an Army veteran who battled multiple sclerosis for 30 years, died of congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia.

He began working at UIS in 1966 as manager of accounting and finance and later became manager of the Harvard Computing Center and associate director of the Office for Information Technology. He was responsible for the merger of the University’s two data centers for the central administration and for research data into a singular center.

He was also actively involved in the Walpole Historical Society. He created a calender with four or five historical facts about Walpole for each day of the year as well as a video about the oldest cemetery in Walpole. With his involvement in the Walpole community, Ciannavei made a name for himself in his hometown.

“People who had moved away would call him and ask him various things they wanted to know about the town,” his wife Joanne said.

Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard’s famed evolutionary biologist whose prolific writings brought science to the masses and outspoken style stirred controversy in his field, died May 20 at his home in New York, 20 years after first being diagnosed with cancer. He was 60.

Gould, who was Agassiz professor of zoology and professor of geology, developed an evolutionary theory known as “punctuated equilibrium” that suggests the process of evolution—traditionally conceived as slow and steady—is actually broken up by short periods of relatively rapid change.

Since becoming a Harvard professor in 1967, he wrote more than 100 essays and dozens of books on subjects relating to natural history, many of which aimed to introduce his field to a broader public.

From 1974 to 2001, he published 300 consecutive monthly columns in Natural History magazine without missing a month. The essays were collected into 10 volumes, the last of which was published earlier this month.

In April, Gould published The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, a 1,433-page work which took 20 years to write.

In 1982, Gould underwent successful treatment for cancer that doctors had said was terminal. He recounted the experience in his renowned essay “The Median Isn’t the Message,” in which he wrote of learning that, statistically speaking, he had a matter of months to live but decided to defy the odds.

Gould announced to one of his classes in early April that he had been diagnosed with new tumors and was preparing for surgery. But he remained confident he would complete the class, insisting on making up the lectures he missed this semester for surgery and treatment.

After growing up in New York City, Gould earned a degree in biology from Antioch College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University in 1967.

In 1975, Gould won the Paleontological Society’s Charles Schubert Award for excellence in his field under the age of 40, though he still faced criticism that he let popular work overshadow his scholarly contributions.

University President Lawrence H. Summers said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by Gould’s death.

“The Harvard community and the world of science have lost a brilliant scholar whose research helped redefine our notion of who we are and where we came from. He was also a gifted teacher who brought important scientific ideas vividly to life for his students and for the wider public,” Summers said. “We will miss him greatly, and we will continue to learn from his work for generations to come.”

Ogden ‘Denny’ Lewis Jr. ’01

While on a hiking trip in South America, Ogden “Denny” Lewis Jr. ’01 died in a car accident on Nov. 14.

Lewis, accompanied by Owen I. Breck ’01 and Robert A. D. Pike ’01, was driving along a gravel mountain road near the town of Puerto Madryn, Argentina, when he lost control of the car, which flipped over.

Friends describe Lewis as friendly and a good listener—a person with whom people could easily talk.

“When you would pass him in the street, you would end up talking to him for such a long time. He would be genuinely interested in what you were saying,” said Samantha A. Goldstein ’00.

A Leverett House resident, Lewis volunteered as a peer counselor and date rape counselor, and led a group of first-years on hiking trips through the Freshman Outdoor Program.

Friends say Lewis was in the process of applying to postbaccalaureate pre-med programs and was eager to be a doctor.

Francis Daniels Moore ’35

Francis Daniels Moore ’35, a pioneer in the field of surgery who oversaw the first successful human organ transplant, died Nov. 24 of heart failure. He was 88.

Moore became surgeon-in-chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as Harvard Medical School’s Moseley professor of surgery in 1948. He remained the chief surgeon for 28 years and retained his professorship until his 1981 retirement.

Moore led the way in the development of organ transplantation and heart surgery methods, heading the team that performed the first organ transplant in 1954—transferring a kidney between identical twins.

Nicholas L. Tilney ’58, who is the current Moore professor of surgery, said Moore was a force in his field, “incredibly capable and bright, tremendously enthusiastic, with an ability to get everyone excited about the area of surgery.”

Moore also wrote a medical best-seller about the metabolic care of surgical patients, which Tilney described as “gigantically important and the definitive work on the subject.”

John U. Monro ’34

John U. Monro ’34, dean of the College from 1958 to 1967, died March 29 in LaVerne, Calif. due to complications from pneumonia. He was 89.

Monro, who arrived at Harvard in 1950 as a College administrator, worked to reform Harvard’s financial aid program and to recruit minorities.

“There are different kinds of deans of this College,” said former Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, whom Monro appointed as the College’s first black assistant dean. “There are some who just preside. But John was a man who brought about real change.”

In the mid-1950s, as director of financial aid, Monro laid the groundwork for the Student Employment Office, founded Harvard Student Agencies to help needy students pay tuition fees and argued for a freshman seminar program.

As dean, Monro held informal meetings with students and in the 1960s helped found the Southern Courier, a paper written by Crimson editors focusing on civil rights issues in the south.

In 1967, Monro surprised his colleagues when he quit to work at Miles College in Alabama as the director of freshman studies. At the historically black college, he developed a first-year curriculum and taught students basic knowledge that would have been taken for granted at Harvard.

Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick, a renowned Harvard thinker who challenged the welfare state in an influential work that defended Libertarian ideas, died Jan. 23 in Cambridge, after a seven-year battle with stomach cancer. He was 63.

Nozick came to Harvard as a professor of philosophy in 1970 and was named a University professor, Harvard’s most prestigious professorial post, in 1998.

Nozick was best known for the critique of the welfare state that he offered in his highly influential first book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Nozick argued that the size of the state should be as small as possible, favoring Libertarian policies that do not interfere with individual rights.

Nozick made a point of exploring new fields and leaving others to discuss his past work. And it was the same way with his teaching.

“He almost never repeated a course he taught,” said Warren Goldfarb ’69, Pearson professor of modern mathematics and mathematical logic.

Even after being diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1994, Nozick maintained his work schedule, publishing his last book and co-teaching an interdisciplinary course this fall. And he scheduled his weekly chemotherapy sessions for immediately after his class each week, in hopes of recovering from the treatment before the next session.

“The courage with which he faced the last years of illness, and the irrepressible energy with which he continued to work, made a very deep impression on all of us,” said Christine M. Korsgaard, Porter professor of philosophy and chair of the philosophy department.

Marc N. Pollack

Marc N. Pollack, chief financial officer of University Health Services (UHS) and a teacher at Harvard’s Extension School, died unexpectedly from a suspected heart attack on Feb. 19 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 51.

With masters degrees from Brandeis and Boston University, Pollack was hired in 1992 to serve as UHS’ assistant director of finance. He was later promoted to CFO, responsible for establishing fees for a variety of UHS services and coordinating them with University officials.

Pollack also taught a course at the Extension School titled “Financial Management and Health.”

“He cared passionately about what he did, was incredibly knowledgeable, and liked teaching a lot,” said Carol Shepherd, who co-taught the course with Pollack said. “He will be missed.”

Nathan M. Pusey ’28

Nathan M. Pusey ’28, Harvard’s 24th president, died of heart disease Nov. 14 at a New York City hospital. He was 94.

Pusey’s administration spanned both the prosperous 1950s and the turbulent 1960s, serving until his retirement in 1971.

“A lot of things that we see and take for granted here at Harvard really had their origin when he was at the helm,” said Derek C. Bok, who succeeded Pusey as president.

As president, Pusey spearheaded the University’s first major fundraising campaign, increasing Harvard’s endowment from $304 million to more than $1 billion. He led major modern campus construction initiatives, adding new buildings such as the Science Center, Peabody Terrace and the Carpenter Center. He also focused on undergraduate education, implementing a need-blind admissions process.

A strong opponent of McCarthyism, Pusey is credited with upholding Harvard’s dedication to academic freedom in the face of blacklists and allegations of treason.

“In an age of double speak, spin control and other artful dodges, one must admire his courage and quiet strength,” Bok said.

But Pusey’s last years as president were characterized by the political turmoil and student activism of the 1960s. He is often remembered for his controversial decision to use police to evict student occupiers from University Hall in 1969.

In a 2000 interview, Pusey said that despite what he called the “time of troubles,” he enjoyed his Harvard tenure.

“That was the best time to be president almost in modern history,” he said. “I had a constructive and happy presidency there of quite a few years.”

Pusey first came to Harvard in 1924 and gained a Harvard Ph.D. in 1937. After teaching at various small liberal arts colleges, Pusey became president of Lawrence College in 1944. He returned to Harvard to assume the top post in 1953.

After his tenure, Pusey moved to New York City to work for a variety of non-profit organizations, serving as president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation from 1971 to 1975.

At a Memorial Church service honoring Pusey on April 14, University President Lawrence H. Summers praised Pusey’s willingness to offer advice and support to him just days after he was selected to be Harvard’s 27th president.

“He stressed to me the importance of Harvard College, an institution he loved at the very center of this University,” Summers said. “I saw immediately that this was a man of immense inner strength...dignity, wisdom and grace.”

Nishit Saran ’98

Award-winning filmmaker, gay rights activist and essayist Nishit Saran ’98 died April 24 in a car accident in New Delhi. He was 25.

Riding with Saran were four of his friends, including a popular Indian music TV host. All were killed instantly when a speeding truck plowed into their car before fleeing the scene. The truck’s driver was arrested the following day on charges of homicide.

After coming to Harvard in 1994, Saran became an active presence in the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered Supporters Alliance.

Saran, who was a native of India, was best known for his work as a filmmaker, a role he thrived in both at Harvard’s visual and environmental studies (VES) department and at international film festivals.

His 1999 personal documentary, “Summer in My Veins,” won high praise from critics and became an inspiration to gays for its frank portrayal of his own reconcilement between family ties and homosexuality.

“For him, film wasn’t just about telling the story. He made you care what he cared about,” said filmmaker Ross McElwee, who was Saran’s mentor and thesis advisor in the VES department. “And what he cared about had tremendous application for issues outside of his own life.”

Charles P. Segal ’57

Charles P. Segal ’57, a classics professor who brought contemporary techniques of literary criticism to bear on ancient Greek and Latin texts, died on Jan. 1 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Segal specialized in Greek tragedy, especially the plays of Sophocles, but he also studied the mythological works of Ovid, the epics of Virgil and pastoral poetry.

“It’s a life’s work to achieve mastery of either one of them,” said Gregory Nagy, Jones professor of classical Greek literature and a longtime colleague of Segal’s. “He did both.”

Segal graduated from the College summa cum laude in classics having received a half-dozen prizes in Greek and Latin, and having been inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard four years later.

“He was very learned, very bright, he seemed intellectually old age for his age,” said Zeph Stewart, now Mellon professor of humanities emeritus, who was one of the readers for Segal’s thesis. “He was very serious, more seriously interested in academic work than most people.”

John C. Snyder

John C. Snyder, a former dean of the Harvard School for Public Health (HSPH) who oversaw the school’s greatest period of expansion in his 17-year tenure, died in Peterborough, N.H. on Feb. 19. He was 91.

Known for his scientific work as well as his administrative skill, Snyder quadrupled the school’s endowment during his term, from 1954 to 1971. With the money he raised, he oversaw the development of new research and two of its main residence facilities.

Snyder, who originally came to Harvard as a professor of microbiology, worked to add professors to the HSPH faculty and to widen the scope of the school’s curriculum into emerging fields like demography and human ecology.

“He did so many things,” said Dr. Thomas H. Weller, who was Strong professor of tropical public health when Snyder was dean. “He built up a very solid faculty department and student body. He was a very hard working, very honest, very dedicated individual.”

Haley S. Surti ’01

Days after receiving her cum laude degree from the College, Haley S. Surti ’01 died June 12 in a bus crash in Peru. She was 21.

Surti was traveling in Peru as a researcher and writer for one of the Let’s Go travel guides, published by the Harvard Student Agencies. Her death was the first in the publication’s 40-year history.

At Harvard, the biochemistry concentrator and Mather House resident, originally from Pittsburgh, was involved in several performing arts groups, including Gunghroo and the Kuumba Singers. She also volunteered through the Phillips Brooks House Association and taught children in Costa Rica one summer.

Friends called her a unique individual, who liked to try a wide range of activities.

“She was the greatest human being I’ve ever met,” said her friend Aneesh V. Raman ’01. “She had [an amount of] energy unparalleled in any person that I’ve met. She did more in her 21 years than most of us will do in a lifetime.”

William Davis Taylor ’31

William Davis Taylor ’31, the revered former publisher of the Boston Globe who was instrumental in endowing Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, died of heart failure on Feb. 19 at his home in Brookline. He was 93.

He is credited for bringing the Globe to the forefront of journalism over his 26 years as publisher from 1955 to 1981.

“He was instrumental in the Globe becoming a quality newspaper,” said Matthew V. Storin, Globe editor from 1991 to 2001. “In the ’50s and ’60s, it was by no means the best.”

After graduating from Harvard, Taylor became a junior accountant at the Globe, founded by his grandfather, Charles H. Taylor and where his father, William Osgood Taylor, preceded his son as publisher.

Taylor rose through the paper’s ranks, becoming business manager, treasurer, general manager and, after his father’s death, publisher.

Taylor’s professional success was equalled by personal charm.

“He struck a very patrician figure and yet he was beloved by the employees in all departments,” Storin said. “I think that he knew the name of every employee at the Globe.”

Don C. Wiley

In a quiet end to a search that baffled investigators for weeks, Loeb Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics Don C. Wiley was found dead in the Mississippi River on Dec. 20. He was 57.

Wiley was internationally renowned for his work in immunology and structural biology.

For determining the structure of certain proteins that stimulate the immune system, Wiley won two prestigious awards with colleague and Harvard Professor Jack L. Strominger ’46, the Lasker Award in 1995 and the Japan Prize in 1999.

He “permanently changed the field of immunology” and had “incredible insights on the problems that interested him,” said Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology Hidde Ploegh.

Wiley, born in Ohio in 1944, earned a degree in physics from Tufts University in 1966 and then completed his graduate study at Harvard.

After earning his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1971, Wiley was appointed an assistant professor at Harvard and quickly rose to become an associate professor in 1975 and a full professor of biochemistry in 1979.

“His combination of energy, boyish enthusiasm and sharp intellect has played a major role in all of our activities,” said Baird Professor of Science Andrew McMahon, who is the chair of Wiley’s department. “His absence leaves a great void.”

Wiley was last seen alive at a scientific conference in Memphis on Nov. 15.

After finding his abandoned rental car on a nearby bridge over the Mississippi River, police investigated the disappearance without any leads until his body was found 320 miles downstream on Dec. 20.

The search for Wiley initially attracted national attention because of his work with infectious diseases—a topic of concern after Sept. 11. His family and colleagues have said it is unlikely that bio-terrorism had anything to do with his death.

Gordon Randolph Willey

Harvard professor emeritus Gordon Randolph Willey, one of the world’s most respected scholars of American archeology, died of heart failure on April 28. He was 90.

Willey, who retired in 1987, taught in the anthropology department for 36 years, training two full generations of archeologists.

He is best known for his field work in the Brvu valley in Peru, which culminated in his 1953 article “Settlement Pattern Survey,” in which he proposed and explicated the method of tracing human occupation of regions by studying their effects on the landscape.

These observations provided insight into people’s economic, political and social organization and has been applied across the field in the study of anything from households to cities.

Willey served as the president of both the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology. His combined work with Jeremy A. Sabloff, A History of American Archaeology, continues to be a standard reference for those working in the field.

“He was beloved by both students and the profession at large,” said William L. Fash, one of Willey’s former students and current chair of the anthropology department. “Willey will not soon be forgotten.”

William Clinton Burriss Young ’55

Former Associate Dean of Freshmen William Clinton Burriss Young ’55 died of a long-term illness on Jan. 8. He was 68.

Young was one of the most well-known figures on campus until his retirement in 1998, a fixture in the Yard usually seen with his aging tweed overcoat and dog Tizzy.

At Harvard for 35 years, he was a proctor and then an assistant dean, and in 1972 was appointed associate dean in the Freshmen Dean’s Office (FDO).

He was also the last administrator removed from his FDO office in University Hall when students occupied the building in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War.

Young graduated from the College with a degree in fine rts and, after receiving a masters degree, went on to teach at Brown University.

Young’s Mass. Hall A-31 home was known as a haven for dorm residents seeking help adjusting to College life or just looking for a place to relax.

“He was a man of broad learning and boundless intellectual curiosity, of impeccable integrity, of impish wit and gently clever pen,” said Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans.