Last weekend, Harvard University lost an outstanding academic, a beloved colleague, and an inspiring mentor to students of history.

H. Leroy Vail, professor of history and Harvard's senior historian of Africa, died on March 27. He was 55 years old.

Vail was known for his work promoting African history within Harvard's History department.

"When I first came...he was the only Africanist here," said Mark A Kishlansky, Baird professor of history and associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "He supported the field of African history and kept it going at Harvard."

Vail advocated for the recruitment of graduate students from Africa to study history at Harvard.

He also taught History 1904. Underdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1884 to President, and History 1909: A History of Southern Africa.

Colleagues said Vail valued the responsibility of teaching students.

"He took undergraduate teaching very seriously. Even his jokes in class were planned," said colleague and Associate Professor of History Emmanuel K. Akyeampong.

Akyeampong said Vail's case studies on tribalism and tradition in southern Africa reshaped how academics think about ethnicity.

Academic commitment notwithstanding, Vail's legacy among his colleagues was his empathy and dedication to his students.

According to History Department Chair William Kirby, Vail was a physi- cally imposing man, very tall and stocky with abeard, but his disposition was anything butimposing.

"He was an absolute gentle soul with a greatwit... [who], as much as any one I have know inthe department, was loved and admired by hisstudents," Kirby said.

Frederick Antwi'01, Harvard African StudentsAssociation president, was one student who wastouched by Vail's enthusiasm and warmth.

"I lived in Africa up until the time I camehere and his lectures showed me that there was alot I had to learn about the continent," Antwisaid.

But students said Vail could be personable aswell as informative. According to Antwi, Vailwould talk to students after class about life inGhana, where he previously lived and Antwi grewup.

"After listening to him lecture for a fewminutes, you gathered that he not only loved hisstuff but loved to communicate it as well," saidAntwi.