Harvard Magazine obituaries editor Deborah Smullyan spotlighted

Obituaries editor Deborah Smullyan ’72 in the spotlight

Deborah Smullyan

This magazine’s class notes and obituaries section came to rest in contributing editor Deborah Smullyan’s hands in 1993. Though she gave up the class notes three years later, she has continued to prepare short memorials on deceased College and Arts and Sciences (GSAS) alumni, writing close to a hundred for each issue. In her day job, meanwhile, Smullyan, herself class of 1972, edits class report volumes for the Harvard Alumni Association, and this week the Harvard Gazette highlighted her double life in its pages.

Most of Smullyan’s work for this magazine is seen only by College and GSAS alumni (and for privacy reasons, online notes and obituaries are made accessible only to registered users). But those of a certain age who confess to opening their new issues straight to the obits—“To see whether I’m there yet,” as one alumnus joked—appreciate her careful efforts to distill Harvard lives into brief but personal portraits. One fan from a 1940s class wrote to tell her, “You make us all feel like family.” That was, she says, “the best compliment I ever got.”

Related topics

You might also like

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

The Artist Edward Gorey—and Pets—at Harvard

Winter exhibits at Houghton Library   

A New Prescription for Youth Mental Health

Kenyan entrepreneur Tom Osborn ’20 reimagines care for a global crisis.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard’s Class of 2029 Reflects Shifts in Racial Makeup After Affirmative Action Ends

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

The Teen Brain

It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them...

Explore More From Current Issue

Aerial view of a landscaped area with trees and seating, surrounded by buildings and parking.

Landscape Architect Julie Bargmann Transforming Forgotten Urban Sites

Julie Bargmann and her D.I.R.T. Studio give new life to abandoned mines, car plants, and more.

Illustration of tiny doctors working inside a large nose against a turquoise background.

A Flu Vaccine That Actually Works

Next-gen vaccines delivered directly to the site of infection are far more effective than existing shots.