Jeremy P. Felt, Professor of History Emeritus, died at home surrounded by his family on March 8, 2005, after a year-long battle with leukemia.

Jerry Felt taught U.S. history at UVM for more than forty years, from 1957 to 2004, with a brief hiatus from 1996 to 2000, when he thought he had "retired." He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Duke University and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Like many of his generation, his higher education was augmented by military service, in his case, the U.S. Air Force where he served from 1951 to 1953.

Jerry was a specialist in U.S. social history, particularly the history of American reform movements, as well as U.S. intellectual history. His major scholarly publication was the seminal work Hostages of Fortune: Child Labor Reform in New York State (Syracuse University Press, 1965). As much as Jerry invested in traditional academic scholarship, his great passion was teaching, and his most lasting legacy may be found in the hundreds of students he taught over two generations.

Jerry's devotion to his students, especially his undergraduate students, was recognized in 1976, when he became one of the first recipients of the George V. Kidder Award in honor of his excellence as an undergraduate teacher and advisor. When he returned to the classroom in 2000 as professor emeritus, Jerry was as popular a teacher as ever. His "Alcohol in American History" course always filled to capacity. He was deeply disappointed that his illness prevented him from teaching this as a TAP course last fall.

Jerry's intellectual world extended far beyond the boundaries of his disciplinary specialty. He took great pride in his work in area and international studies: as program director, he helped build AIS at UVM in its earliest stages. He also took great pride in his role as director of the Scandinavian Seminar, a program that recruited students from across the U.S. to study in the Nordic countries. His Fulbright year in Finland, at the University of Helsinki, made a lasting impression on him, and he avidly studied the history and literature of northern Europe.

Jerry was a warm and witty presence in the department, welcoming the influx of new faculty in the 1990s. He was a caring mentor for many within the department-and without- during his two terms as University Ombudsperson. We shall miss him.

Jerry's family and the History Department are establishing a memorial award in his name for undergraduate history majors with an interest in teaching. Contributions to the Felt Prize Fund should be directed to the History Department; condolences may be sent to Jerry's wife, Betsy Berry, 25 DeForest Heights, Burlington, VT 05401.

A service celebrating Jerry's life was held on April 9th in the Unitarian Universalist Church at the top of Church Street in Burlington.