“When it comes to the matter of Christian morals, he did a number one job for the University. What he did was for the University and not simply the Protestant community within the University.”

On Wednesday afternoons, Gomes opened his home to the Harvard community for tea, an event that became an institution of its own where faculty, staff, and students mingled in his elegant Victorian abode.

As the professor for Religion 1513: “The History of Harvard and Its Presidents,” University traditions and history were of primary concern to Gomes, Cox said. Last year, when Cox wanted to exercise the right—attached to his endowed chair—to graze a cow on Harvard’s property, Gomes was crucial in making the event happen.

When Cox said that he was worried that security guards might intervene, Gomes quipped, “They would never dare,” according to Cox.

EARLY DAYS

Gomes was born on May 22, 1942 and raised in Plymouth, Mass. As a child, Gomes was a voracious reader whose parents had always stressed the importance of education, according to Linda H. Bunza, a long-time friend who first met Gomes while studying with him at Bates College,

“When he was a little boy, he would go to the basement and stand on cranberry crates and pretend to preach to the crowd,” she said. “He was a born preacher.”

Gomes attended local public schools in Plymouth. He was elected president of his class as a senior and oversaw the research and genealogy department at the local library, Bunza said.

“I think he looks to that place as where he gained his confidence,” she said of Gomes’ coming of age in Plymouth. “They saw the great gift that young man had and they nurtured it.”

Gomes’ love of his native town continued throughout his life. He served as the chairman of the committee to celebrate its 400th anniversary.

“As an African American growing up in Plymouth he was of course a minority,” Cox said. “It’s rather indicative of how Peter was able to absorb, in his own way, traditions that were not biologically his own and make them his own. His whole life he was so steeped in the history of his hometown.”

After graduating from high school in Plymouth, Gomes attended Bates College in Maine, where he majored in history.

“He was a man about campus and everyone knew him,” Bunza said. “He didn’t act at all different than anyone else, but he was probably more regal.”

After graduating from Bates in 1965, Gomes enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in 1968.

Gomes then moved Alabama to teach history at Tuskegee Institute—where he remained until he returned to Harvard as an assistant minister in Memorial Church in 1970.

Four years later, he was appointed Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, positions he held until his death.

Memorial Church will be open tomorrow for the community to honor Gomes beginning at 9 a.m. The University is planning a formal memorial service for this Spring.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.