S. Allen Counter Has Died

The director of the Harvard Foundation passed away after a brief illness.

S. Allen Counter has died after a brief illness. Counter was the inaugural and longtime director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, and was a part-time professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. His speech at the Phi Beta Kappa ceremony in 2015 was covered in this magazine. A brief obituary appears on the Harvard College website.

An example from the magazine’s archives of how his work changed Harvard appears in this article describing how the Harvard Foundation began commissioning oil portraits of minority and female Harvardians for display on campus.
 

 

 

Read more articles by Jonathan Shaw

You might also like

The award-winning international journalist has served as interim curator since 2025.

College staff whose jobs will be changed or eliminated were notified this week.

The organization said its amicus brief had not been reviewed internally.

Most popular

FAS leaders say restructuring will be complete by mid-October.

In her memoir All That's Unseen, Emilee Hackney explores religion, friendship, and home.

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

Explore More From Current Issue

Racing driver gives a thumbs up from inside a car, wearing a helmet and safety gear.

Harvard graduate and NASCAR racer Patrick Staropoli on pedals, attention, and fearlessness.

Singer performing on stage with a guitar, wearing a hat, and surrounded by band instruments.

Singer Elisa Smith’s whiskey-soaked voice and subversive feminism is part of the genre’s urban shift.

Two figures stand before a large, colorful pixelated face against a yellow background.

Harvard scientists identify hundreds of genes under selective pressure.