WALTER KAISER

KAISER--Walter,

May 31, 1931 to January 5, 2016. Born in Bellevue, Ohio during the Depression, the son of a grocer, he became a page in the U.S. Senate in 1944 and then won scholarships to Philips Academy, Andover and Harvard, an institution he didn't leave until retirement. He graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in 1954, received his Ph.D. in 1960, and was made Professor of English and Comparative Literature in 1969. From 1988 to 2002 he served as Director of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. His leadership profoundly shaped I Tatti, and those were among his happiest years; he always felt that he truly belonged to the northern Mediterranean, especially to Greece and Italy. His love of learning and the arts gave color and depth to every aspect of his life. Few people have been more learned or more cultivated, wittier or more awake to beauty. Fewer still have had his genius for friendship. He was extraordinarily generous with his attention, and always finding opportunities for generosity where others wouldn't have seen them. He was the best of fathers. He is survived by his children, Miranda and David, and three granddaughters; by his brother, Bob; by his many godchildren; and by hundreds of others whose lives he enriched immeasurably, as the astonishing outpouring of grief and love from around the world since his death attests. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Walter Kaiser Fund for the Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University.