Harvard Divinity Prof. Peter Gomes Dies

Harvard Divinity School Prof. Rev. Peter J. Gomes died Monday night. Gomes suffered a brain aneurysm and a heart attack. He was 68.

Gomes, who grew up in Plymouth, was an African-American, Republican, openly gay and fascinated with the Pilgrims, something he spoke about on WBUR's Here & Now in 2009.

"I know I'm African-American, not Anglo Saxon, and the Pilgrims were Anglo Saxons, and so in theory I should feel this great divide, but I didn't feel that great divide, I thought they were just the first citizens of the town I lived in and I should find out about them, and I claimed them," he said.

According to the Harvard Crimson, which first reported Gomes' death, he planned to retire next year after more than 40 years at Harvard.

In this video, Peter Gomes recites the 1935 poem, “The D.A.R. lings…” written by Arthur Guiterman for The New Yorker:

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