After completing a master's degree at Columbia, Heimert returned to Harvard to receive a Ph.D in 1960. Heimert was married two years later in Appleton Chapel to Arline I. Grimes '59, whom he met when she was still an undergraduate.

Heimert then went on to serve as master of Eliot House from 1968 to 1991. He was succeeded by the current masters Stephen A. Mitchell, professor of Scandanavian literature and folklore, and Kristin L. Forsgard, but maintained an office in the House and taught a House seminar on the witches of Salem.

"He inspired great loyalty and spirit among the Eliot House community, and during his time there Eliot House and its inhabitants had a strong sense of place. That alone is not too shabby a legacy for any House master to leave behind," Mitchell wrote in an e-mail message.

"I have rarely had so much fun in my nearly two decades on the Harvard faculty--the man could reel off enormous stretches of sermons, prayers and other 17th-century materials," Mitchell added.

An Intense Instructor

Students and colleagues alike yesterday remembered Heimert for the intensity of his classes.

"He dared to do things that hardly any other Harvard professor would think of today, like glower at and castigate a student who hadn't done the requisite reading," Mitchell said.

Michael B. Fertik '00 remembers his one-on-one tutorial with Heimert last spring because he was surprised to find that such a well-established scholar was genuinely interested in his student's thoughts on Moby Dick.