Fleming, Harvard Prof for 41 Years, Dies at 84

An old fashioned intellectual stalwart, Donald H. Fleming will be remembered for his productive mind and traditional etiquette, making him a much demanded dinner guest in Cambridge, friends and colleagues said.

He died last month in his Cambridge home at the age of 84.

After earning a Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1947, Fleming began to carve out his place in academia—teaching history at Brown for 11 years and history of science at Yale for a year before beginning 41 years of professorship at Harvard, retiring at the age of 76 in 1999. 

"As a colleague, he took deep interest in the department's business, combining a rather traditional etiquette with a very sharp wit," William C. Kirby, former Dean of the Faculty and former chair of the history department, wrote in an e-mail.

Fleming also served as the director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History between 1973 and 1980.

At the time of his retirement, he taught graduate seminars as well as Harvard's only course in modern European intellectual history.

Colleagues said his classes were often overenrolled due to popularity, citing both his mastery of American and European intellectual history and his humor as draws for students.

"He was a splendid lecturer and stand up comic and all that one needs to be to succeed as a professor," said James Hankins, a professor of history, the year after Fleming retired.

Lilian Handlin—a friend of 30 years and fellow historian—wrote in an e-mail that Fleming's intellectual curiosity ran deep. As a scholar of history of science, he read "voluminously" on both sides of the field.

"[He] was a subscriber and a reviewer in numerous strictly scientific publications, like Isis, or Nature, on both sides of the Atlantic, writing sharp, detailed and highly imaginative reviews and articles," she wrote. "His scholarship was meticulous, but also insightful."

Fleming was considered a loyal friend who had the wit and curiosity about others to enliven "even the dullest of evenings," Handlin wrote.  If friends took ill, Fleming would sit by their bedside and send beautiful flower pots to lift their spirits.  

"On grand occasions, Donald could always be counted upon to bring...a corsage—invariably a beautiful orchid with a clip attached, that allowed the women to wear the flower on their elegant dress," Handlin wrote. "Donald was also a splendid dancer and in the really olden days could be counted upon to sweep his partner off the floor with flourish and grace."

But Fleming also had "a jaundiced view of life and politics in general," and was known for his conservative perspective, she added.

Though he did shepherd several now-prominent black and female scholars through their dissertation processes, former student Londa L. Schiebinger—now a professor at Stanford University—said that his politics came in the way while he advised her doctoral dissertation.

Schiebinger was paired with Fleming because she was initially planning to write on European intellectual history but changed her topic during her time as a Fulbright scholar in Berlin.

"He was courteous, gracious, and friendly, but when I changed to a topic on women and gender, he was not completely helpful," Schiebinger said. "I would say I succeeded despite Fleming not because of him."

Nevertheless, in the 20 years since Schiebinger's graduation, Fleming continued to be known as a "strong and loyal mentor to his graduate students" and "one of Harvard's most dedicated teachers," Kirby said. "He was one of a kind, and we will miss him."

—Staff Writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balkris@fas.harvard.edu.