LEONARD KOLLENDER NASH

Professor Nash was an amazing person. I took his intro chem course as a freshman in the fall of 1979. He was creative and enthusiastic, but above all I remember his incredible joy in teaching. Some of his demonstrations were incredibly fun - I still remember his dust explosion -- but behind all that he also taught us quite a bit of science. He really loved helping students learn and we as his students loved him in return.

Nash was a fine teacher and a fine advisor. His unstinting honesty saved my academic career at Harvard. He sat me down in his office and told me that I was not going to succeed as a Chemistry concentrator and offered to call the chairman of any other department and help me change my concentration. There was not a scintella of condescension in his voice. He was honest, kind, and devoted to helping students, especially those who found chemistry challenging.

I took his class, "The Macrocosm and the Microcosm" in the fall of 1967 as a freshman. (His semester was the macrocosm and the spring semester was taught by others, focusing on molecular biology.) He was everything I dreamed about in a professor when I imagined going to Harvard--dynamic, witty, knowledgable, thought-provoking. I still remember that he "rubbed it in" a bit that the Radcliffe women always outscored the men on his tests. May his family extol and be blessed by his memory.

My first contact with Professor Nash was as a freshman student in Chem 2 (1957). His energy and enthusiasm punctuated every class. One of many memorable moments occurred after a student gave a particularly uninformed answer to a question. Prof. Nash ran up the steps of the lecture hall to where she was sitting, bent down, looked her in the eyes, and said for all to hear, “You don't know one helluva lot of chemistry, do you?” To say that without malice but in his unique good-natured way was...

My first contact with Professor Nash was as a freshman student in Chem 2 (1957). His energy and enthusiasm punctuated every class. One of many memorable moments occurred after a student gave an obviously uninformed answer to a question. Prof. Nash ran up the steps of the lecture hall to where she was sitting, bent down, looked her in the eyes and said for all to hear, “You don't know one helluva lot of chemistry, do you?” To say that without malice but in his unique good-natured way was...

I only took one chemistry course at Harvard. It was Chem 2, a freshman course. Professor Nash was a great teacher and I remember him vividly, after more than 60 years. He would stay long after each lecturer, answering questions and helping the students.

Professor Nash was the finest teacher I have ever met and it was a pleasure to be a graduate assistant for his various courses in the early to mid 1970s

As an Instructor at Harvard from 1962 to 1965 I helped Leonard with Chem 2 and the first run through of its successor, Chem 6. Leonard was an inspired and inspiring teacher. I learned a lot about lecturing and will always remember him running up the steps in MB8 to put on his own slides! I feel very privileged to have served under him.

Professor Nash was one of the best professors I ever had. As a freshman at Harvard in the fall of 1976, I took Chem 10. Spending time with Lenny Nash - either in class or in his frequent office hours -- wsa a wonderful introduction to the best of Harvard. Nash was fiercely devoted to teaching. He had a serious yet fun attitude. My prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends. With sympathy, Allan Smith