"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.