Joffe worked on the first issues of the review, which was founded in 1966 following the passage of the Voting Rights Bill in 1965, said Gordon J. Davis, a fellow editor.
“[Robert] was a very diligent, thorough person. I saw many of the qualities that distinguished him later in his career,” Davis said.
Joffe’s commitment to civil rights was just “part of who he was,” Davis added.
In 1989 Joffe argued Martin v. Wilks before the Supreme Court. Robert K. Wilks and other white firefighters had filed an anti-discrimination suit after a consent decree required that black firefighters be promoted. In this pro bono case Joffe represented the black firefighters in Birmingham, Ala.
Joffe is survived by his wife Virginia, two children, two step-children, and two grandchildren.
—Staff writer Zoe A.Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.