<p>I just learned that The Reverend Peter J. Gomes, principal minister of the Harvard Memorial Church and Harvard Historian, passed away tonight. I only heard him speak a few times in person, but heard him many times over WHRB on Sunday mornings. He was always a pleasure to listen to and had a wonderful wry sense of humor that he often injected into his sermons (and his pleas for donations to the church). He will surely be missed from the Harvard campus.</p>
<p>So sad to see this news in the NYTimes this morning! I’ll always remember his address to my class during our graduation week. He was one of a kind.</p>
<p>When I sat with D1 at her freshman Opening Ceremonies, I got to hear Dean Jeremy Knowles give a memorable address about the value of a Harvard education in teaching one how to recognize when a person is “talking rot.” At D2’s Freshman Parents Weekend, I had the great pleasure to hear Rev. Gomes - one of the great orators of his generation. It’s sad to think that they’re both now gone before D2’s college days are done, but I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to have heard both of them. I feel that I was witness to the legacy of an era in Harvard’s history.</p>
<p>Whenever I pray, I try to pray like Rev. Gomes. What a gem. We are all at a loss without him.</p>
<p>To say that someone was one of a kind seems to be poppycock in almost all situations…but with Peter, it is uniquely true. The was the last of a breed. Harvard today is much les interesting place with his passing. thousands of us were forever changed by him–whether one was married by him (I was) or if one just encountered this patrician son of slaves who referred to himself as an Afro-Saxon-- a Gay, Baptist, Conservative, Republican, wanna-be Anglo-Catholic who held the post of Preacher to the Univsersity in a nominally UU university. He would walk in the Yard, straw boater on his head and pocket square flowing from his breast pocket, and when asked how he was would reply-- “I Flourish”. He will be sorely missed. I am sorry for all members of 2015 who will not have a chance to encounter him.</p>