Words of honor from University President Lawrence Bacow and Provost Jamshed Bharucha, musical tributes by professors and students, and an emotional retrospective speech from a graduate student echoed through a packed Cohen Auditorium yesterday.
They came as the Tufts community remembered the recently deceased Gerald Gill.
"He transformed life," Bharucha said. "He took on the responsibility to address some of the most insidious issues of our time."
Students, faculty members and other members of the community lined the rear wall of Cohen after all the seats on the first floor had been filled by other audience members.
One of the most memorable moments in the program came unexpectedly when David Proctor, the classics department administrator and a graduate student who had studied with Gill, delivered his brief tribute.
Proctor said that in addition to the many academic lessons Gill, who was an associate history professor at the time of his death, put forth to his colleagues and students, "he taught us how to value everyone around us."
"We've all benefited from these lessons, but none more so than his students," he said.
It has long been said of Gill that he was an exceptionally involved teacher, one who embodied the principles of undergraduate education.
"Office hours went on well past posted times," Proctor said. "[Gill's was] a door that was always open."
As he neared the end of his speech, Proctor unexpectedly broke down, his voice quaking as he said, "Professor Gill, you will always live in the memory of your students."
Associate Music Professor John McDonald and Music Lecturer Joel LaRue Smith contributed original piano pieces at different intervals in the ceremony. McDonald performed new-music compositions based on African-American spirituals, and Smith presented "Colossus, First Movement from Piano Sonata, No. 1."
Gill, a widely respected historian of African-American history and race relations, died of arterial sclerosis on July 26.
A native of New York transplanted to the Boston area by way of Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., he had concentrated particular energy on the study of African-American history around the Boston area, especially around Tufts.
At the time of his death, Gill was at work on a non-fiction book exploring the complex history of race relations in Boston. The book, "Struggling Yet in Freedom's Birthplace," was set to examine the interracial dynamics of a controversial city from the mid-1930s to the mid-1970s. Some of his colleagues are now considering finishing the book for him.
Gill was also the author of "The Case for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education" and "Meanness Mania: The Changed Mood," both of which were published through the Howard University Press. He received his master's degree from Howard in 1974.
Gill was well-known among many Tufts students for leading them on Boston's Freedom Trail walk, which takes urban hikers to significant spots in Boston.
He had also considered constructing a similar trail around Tufts, in which he would have blended local Medford and Somerville civil rights landmarks with on-campus spots where important events had occurred along the university's path to racial equality.
Associate Professor of Political Science Pearl Robinson discussed this aspect of Gill's work during her address yesterday. "Gerald has left us more than history lessons," she said. "He has left us [a] Freedom Tree ... behind Ballou Hall."
But even as he worked closely on his research and with his students, his emotional state was deteriorating, some speakers said.
Although Gill was planning on taking a leave of absence this semester, Bharucha credited him for working hard at Tufts for over 25 years, "even though his despair grew with time."
History Department Chair Howard Malchow punctuated his remarks with a lament of Gill's state of "anguish" in his later life.
The majority of Malchow's speech, however, was dedicated to emphasizing that during Tufts' recent attempts to encourage faculty research, the university should not lose sight of the importance of professors like Gill, who focus the majority of their efforts on their students - especially their undergraduates.
"How do we find, get and keep the future Gerry Gill?" he asked.
