Renowned historian and beloved professor Gerald Gill died of arterial sclerosis on July 26 at the age of 58.
Gill, a graduate of Lafayette College and Howard University, had been teaching at Tufts since 1980 and was an associate professor of history and the deputy chair of the history department at the time of his death.
He was a civil rights expert and an avid researcher whose work focused on African American opposition to 20th century wars.
While some have called Boston the most racist city in America, it became a second home for Gill and the setting for his latest and most ambitious project - a history of the city's race relations.
Set to be titled "Struggling Yet in Freedom's Birthplace," the book, which he never had a chance to complete, would chronicle race relations in Boston from the 1930s onward and include Gill's own research to reevaluate the city's notorious reputation.
"He wasn't an apologist for racism in Boston, but I think he chose a different path," said David Pomerantz (LA '07), an advisee and friend of Gill's. "He chose to focus on how the black community in Boston was fighting for freedom. In his own way, I think he was still struggling for civil rights and at the same time trying to preserve the legacy of people that had been doing that for decades."
Gill's scholarly path began in earnest 40 years ago in eastern Pennsylvania, where he enrolled as one of few African American students at Lafayette College. He was strongly influenced by the civil rights movement, and was stirred by a speech that activist Stokely Carmichael gave at the college in the late 1960s.
His new ideas propelled him into issues of race and social justice, and he was one of the founders of both Lafayette's Association of Black Collegians and the Black Cultural Center, both of which remain at the heart of the college's African American student community.
Bob Weiner, the Jones Professor of History and the Jewish chaplain at Lafayette, remembers Gill as "a wonderfully engaging and engaged student."
"When we talked about issues of race and equality, he approached them as much from sadness as from anger and always with a sense of balance and perspective," Weiner said. "He wanted to learn about the problems, and then he wanted to fix them. He had a wonderful spirit and a great love for humanity."
His research earned him a renowned place in African American scholarship, which was solidified by fellowships at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley and several consulting jobs. He consulted, for example, for PBS' "Eyes on the Prize" series, a comprehensive history of the civil rights movement that aired in 1990.
Gill's work also carried his work into surrounding communities. He held a fellowship at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University and delivered the keynote speech last November at a conference entitled "Power and Protest: The Civil Rights Movement in Boston, 1960-1968" at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. He also helped local public schools develop curricula for African American and 20th century American history classes.
But his strongest legacy may be the connections that he formed with his students and colleagues, rather than his extensive research. He made it a point to learn - and remember - not just his students' names, but their majors, hometowns and hobbies.
"He was a man who cared deeply about all the people he met and knew," said Associate History Professor Jeanne Penvenne. "He [knew] the name of the person who hands him his coffee, ... the person who's raking the leaves, the policeman on the corner."
"He was a constant presence on the campus. I still find myself looking for him when I walk across the quad today," University President Lawrence Bacow told the Daily in an e-mail. "Tufts is a lesser place today without him."
Steven Cohen, a lecturer in the American studies department, related a dinner with Gill last summer. A former student of Gill's was talking to Cohen's son, who is a freshman at Tufts this fall.
"He said, 'Your father teaches history, but Professor Gill is history.' He had it right," Cohen remembered. "To listen to Gerry talk about history was to be there."
Gill had been scheduled to be on leave this semester to work on his book. Now, several of his colleagues are hoping to bring his work to posthumous publication. They have three entire chapters, and possibly enough information for a fourth.
Moving forward, Tufts plans to find a professor to teach Gill's classes for the spring semester.
"Emotionally, that will be a hard thing to do," Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences Andrew McClellan said. "It almost seems inappropriate to rush to replace someone who is irreplaceable."
For more coverage, please visit Tufts e-News' remembrance page.
-Marc Raifman and Sarah Butrymowicz contributed reporting to this article.
