"To use the Puritan vocabulary, he gave me my calling," said Andrew H. Delbanco '73, who wrote his doctoral dissertation under Heimert and is now a professor of the humanities at Columbia University.
"I had a general interest in literature, but thoughts of a career were vague. The literature of early America was remote and strange to me until Professor Heimert revealed its beauty and intricacy to me," Delbanco said.
Heimert is survived by his wife, his son Andrew and his daughter, Larisa.