Former K-School Dean, Law Prof., Fogg Director, Scholar Pass Away

The Harvard community witnessed an unusual number of passings this summer:

Not Like 'Ordinary Mortals'

Don K. Price Jr., who served almost two decades as dean of the Kennedy School of Government, died of Alzheiemer's disease on July 9. He was 85.

Price was dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration from 1958 until 1977. He was also Weather-head professor of public management from 1958 until 1980, and was known for his work in the study of government organization and management. More recently, he specialized in studying the relationship of science and technology to public policy.

Former Harvard president Derek C. Bok said that Price "was almost the most perfect gentleman I ever dealt with at Harvard."

"[He was] someone with such enormous integrity and decency that it was overwhelming," Bok said. "He was just a superior sort of person, not given to any of the pettiness or distempers that afflict most of us ordinary mortals."

As dean of the Kennedy School, Price was instrumental in developing the school's curriculum. He worked to link the government and administrative program of the school to the School of Engineering, where students could be exposed to learning approaches such as systems analysis.

Architect of Marshall Plan

Milton Katz '27, Harvard's Stimson professor of law, emeritus and former director of the Marshall Plan, died on August 9 of cardiac arrest. He was 87.

Katz was a noted scholar and teacher of international law. But he is per-haps best known for overseeing the rebuilding of Europe following World War II as head of the Marshall Plan.

"Milton Katz was a man of tremendous vision, intellect and accomplishment," Harvard Law School Dean Robert C. Clark said in a statement. "He played a major role in the reconstruction of Europe after World War II as ambassador to the Marshall Plan and he was one of the prime shapers of international legal studies at Harvard Law School."

Katz was appointed lecture on law in 1939, and rose to professor of law in 1940. He was named Byrne professor of administrative law in 1946. In 1954, he became Stimson professor of law, a post he held until 1978.

Following his retirement from Harvard, Katz was named a distinguished professor of law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, where he taught until January, 1995.

'The Soul of Courtesy'

John P. Coolidge '35, Boardman professor of fine arts, emeritus and former director of the Fogg Art Museum, died on July 31. He was 81.

"John Coolidge was the soul of courtesy," President Neil L. Rudenstine said in a statement. "He also embodied an aesthetic taste and intellectual style which combined New English naturalness with the cultivation of a well-traveled and well trained eye and mind."

Coolidge was named director of the Fogg in 1948. During his 20-year tenure, he championed and strengthened the holdings in the Fogg, particularly in contemporary art, and committed the museum to expanded educational services.

Coolidge was a tenured professor of fine arts from 1955 until 1984.

He also served a term as president of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1973 until 1975.

'Connoisseur of Friendship'

John J. Conway, a former master of Leverett House, died on July 13 after a stroke. He was 79.

Conway held various administrative and teaching positions at Harvard from 1945 until 1963. He served on Harvard's Board of Freshman Advisers and the Educational Policy Committee. In the 1960s, he chaired a committee to improve the Freshman Seminar Program.

"He was a connoisseur of friendship," former Leverett resident Stephen S. Rosenfeld '53 told The New York Times.

"I...became a journalist because of John Conway," said Rosenfeld, who is deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post. "Through his own example, he introduced me to the notion that an individual's sensibilities could come to terms with the crud world outside the comfortable cocoon in which many of us had lived."

Prench Scholar

Laurence Wylie, Dillon professor of the civilization of France emeritus, died on July 25 after a bout with prostate cancer. He was 85.

During a 50-year teaching and research career that spanned sociology, anthropology and the study of French Language and literature, Wylie sought to help improve Americans' understanding of France.

Among undergraduates, Wylie was known in part for incorporating body language into his lessons, moving beyond the grammar and syntax of spoken French to include gestures and facial expressions.