IN MEMORIAM

Archbishop Geron Iakovos, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America for 37 years and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, died on April 10 from a pulmonary ailment. He was 93.

Iakovos headed the two million followers of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America from 1959 to 1996.

He graduated with his second Master’s degree from the Harvard Divinity School in 1945.

Iakovos was a strong supporter of ecumenism, which he described in 1960 as “the hope for international understanding, for humanitarian allegiance, for true peace based on justice and dignity, and for God’s continued presence and involvement in modern history.”

He was instrumental in establishing dialogues between the Orthodox and other churches in the U.S. and also received widespread media attention for marching with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 as a show of his support for improved race relations and human rights.

In a speech at Iakovos’ New York City funeral service on April 14, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Iakovos “truly walked the walk, talked the talk.”

Iakovos also became the first Greek Orthodox archbishop to meet with a Roman Catholic Pope in 350 years when he met Pope John XXIII in 1959.

He spent nine years on the World Council of Churches and met with every U.S. president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to William J. Clinton. Jimmy Carter awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 1980.

Iakovos maintained traditional Orthodox beliefs such as opposing female ordination, but came into conflict with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church after he supported a move by 29 bishops towards the administrative unification of Eastern Orthodox churches in America. It is widely believed that this clash forced him to resign in 1996.

Iakovos was born Demetrios Coucouzis in 1911 in Imvros, Turkey. In 1934 he received a Master’s degree from Istanbul’s Ecumenical Patriarch’s Theological School and was ordained to the Church in Lowell, Mass. in 1940. He became a U.S. citizen in 1950.

Iakovos has no immediate survivors.

He was buried on April 15 in the grounds of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass.

—Alexandra C . Bell

Saunders Mac Lane, Mathematician and Harvard Professor

Saunders Mac Lane, an influential mathematician and former Harvard professor who co-founded category theory, died on April 14 from internal bleeding due to constrictive heart disease. He was 95.

Mac Lane was most famous for the ground-breaking paper he co-wrote with Samuel Eilenberg of Columbia in 1945 which introduced category theory, a framework to show how mathematical structures relate to each other. This branch of algebra has since influenced most mathematical fields and also has functions in philosophy and linguistics, but was first dismissed by many practical mathematicians as too abstract to be useful.

Gade University Professor of Mathematics Barry Mazur, a friend of the late Mac Lane, recalled that the paper had at first been rejected from a lower-caliber mathematical journal because the editor thought that it was “more devoid of content” than any other work he had read.

“Saunders wrote back and said, ‘That’s the point,’” Mazur said.

“And in some ways that’s the genius of it. It’s the barest, most Beckett-like vocabulary that incorporates the theory and nothing else.”

He likened it to a sparse grammar of nouns and verbs and a limited vocabulary that is presented “in such a deft way that it will help you understand any language you wish to understand and any language will fit into it.”

Mac Lane collaborated again with Eilenberg to form a theory of topological space that is called Eilenberg-Mac Lane space.

He also published several college mathematics textbooks with late Harvard professor Garrett Birkhoff, and wrote widely on the history of mathematics.

The Norwich, Conn. local received his bachelor’s degree at Yale in 1930 and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1931, before going on to obtain a doctorate from the University at Gottingen, Germany in 1934.

After brief teaching stints at several colleges, including Harvard, he later returned to the University of Chicago and remained as a professor there for over three decades.

His brother, David Mac Lane, explained that despite his prominence, the famed mathematician was often reluctant to take on administrative posts.

“He was more interested in ideas and creativity than administrative duties,” David Mac Lane said.

“Mathematics was the major function of his life....He loved to teach and do research and he enjoyed his work at Harvard very much.”

Mac Lane was president of the Mathematics Association of America from 1951 to 1953. He also served as vice president of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

He was awarded the country’s highest award for scientific achievement, the National Medal of Science, in 1989, and over his lifetime published 100 papers and authored or co-authored six books.

“[Category theory] set the stage for all modern unifications of mathematics,” Mazur said. “So many theories were begging for it and it is now the lingua franca.”

Mac Lane is survived by his brother, David, his second wife, Osa, two daughters, and a grandson.

—Alexandra C. Bell

H. Richard Uviller ’51, Columbia Law Professor

H. Richard Uviller ’51, Levitt Professor Emeritus of Law at Columbia University and expert on criminal law, died on April 19 after battling bladder cancer. He was 75.

Uviller received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, focusing on psychology and social relations. During his time in Cambridge, he was primarily concerned with his academic work and threw himself into his studies.

“I know that he loved it at Harvard and that he was very involved. He was very engaged and happy in his work,” said Ellen Keniston, Uviller’s sister, who resides in Cambridge.

After graduating from Harvard College in 1951, Uviller went on to receive his law degree from Yale Law School in 1953. At Yale, he was heavily involved with the Yale Law Journal, serving as its note and comment editor.

By all accounts, Uviller had a true passion for criminal law and constitutional law, and wanted to be directly involved with court proceedings.

After graduating from law school, Uviller worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, part of the United States Department of Justice. As this job did not permit him direct contact with persons who needed legal aid, Uviller left the Department for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he worked for 14 years.

At the District Attorney’s Office, Uviller was named chief of the Appeals Bureau. He also had the opportunity to argue nine cases before the United States Supreme Court, and some of the cases that he argued are still studied in law school courses today.

He was known for balancing his devotion to the protection of civil liberties with a strong respect for the needs of the state.

Uviller was offered a position at Columbia University Law School in 1968, where he taught courses until 2002. While there, he was known for his dedication to teaching and his field research.

His research resulted in the publication of a number of books, most notably Tempered Zeal: A Columbia University Professor’s Year on the Streets With the New York City Police.

“He was really interested in teaching and in sort of mentoring students. He was very much engaged in all aspects of teaching,” said Keniston.

In addition to his dedication to law, Uviller was known as a “warm” and “funny” family man, who enjoyed playing the cello and painting.

In addition to his sister, Uviller is survived by his wife, the Honorable Rena Katz Uviller; his daughter, Daphne Rachel Uviller; and a granddaughter.

—Alexandra M. Gutierrez