Harold M. Stahmer Jr. ’51

Harold M. Stahmer Jr. ’51—a distinguished scholar in religion and philosophy, academic administrator, and civil rights activist—died at his Gainesville, Florida, home on October 23, 2020. Hal majored in philosophy at Dartmouth, where his life’s direction was profoundly influenced by longtime mentor and professor Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Hal was a Rufus Choate scholar and a senior fellow, captained the rifle team, and was a member of Chi Phi and the Dartmouth Christian Union. He went on to earn a master’s of divinity from Union Theological Seminary, where he studied under Reinhold Niebuhr, and a doctorate at Cambridge University. He also spent a year at German Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach. Hal’s academic career included 12 years as professor and chair of the department of religion at Barnard College and Columbia University and 26 years as associate dean in arts and sciences and professor of religion at the University of Florida. Among numerous honors, he received the Danforth Foundation’s National Distinguished Teaching Prize. He authored and edited several books. Hal’s strong commitment to the civil rights movement led him to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. For four years he was director of the landmark Harvard-Yale-Columbia intensive summer studies program, designed to prepare gifted Black students for graduate and professional study. While at the University of Florida he received the Black Student Union’s John Brown Service Award. He is survived by daughter Sarah ’79.