Murray B. Levin '48

Boston University (B.U.) Professor of Political Science emeritus Murray B. Levin '48, a member of the Quincy House Senior Common Room and a scholar-activist, died Dec. 8 of heart problems. He was 72.

Levin, who urged his students to stand up for what they believed, practiced what he preached as a member of the so-called "B.U. Five," a group of tenured professors who taught classes outside to protest the administration's failure to grant secretaries the right to unionize.

Levin is the author of several books, including The Alienated Voter: Politics in Boston, two books on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.) and Talk Radio and the American Dream.

After retiring from B.U. in 1990, Levin taught at the Harvard Extension School and spent several years teaching underprivileged students in Boston. This experience inspired his most recent book, Teach Me: Kids Will Learn When Oppression Is the Lesson.

Richard C. Marius

The former director of Harvard's Expository Writing program, a Reformation scholar and an acclaimed novelist, Richard C. Marius died at his home in Belmont on Nov. 5 from pancreatic cancer. He was 66.

Marius became Harvard's director of Expository Writing in 1978 and served until 1993.

Faculty and students remembered Marius--who taught classes on such writers as Shakespeare, Twain and Faulkner--as a devoted teacher and "Southern gentleman" who loved writing. He retired from Harvard last year after becoming sick in order to finish his fourth novel.

His other novels, The Coming of the Rain , Bound for the Promised Land and After the War, portray individuals interacting with major historical events between 1850 and 1950. They are all set in Marius' native Tennessee.

Stanley Miller '52

A local entrepreneur and former member of Radcliffe College's Board of Trustees, Stanley Miller '52 died of lymphoma on Jan. 28 at his Newton home. He was 68.

Jane E. Tewksbury '74, who served on the board with Miller, called him "a true friend of Radcliffe who will be sorely missed."

"One time, an abandoned child was left on his doorstep, and he and his wife made sure it was provided for," said Amey A. De Friez '49, former chair of the Radcliffe Board. "Of all the doorsteps in Newton to be left on, that was probably the best one."

In addition to his service to Radcliffe, Miller was a past president of the Harvard Club of Boston and ran the Newton Planning Board and Park Commission, as well as the Newton United Fund.

A Harvard Business School (HBS) graduate, Miller founded two real estate companies, Space Makers and Realty Financial Partners. He was also a partner in Congress Realty Companies.