Former Harvard history chair MacCaffrey remembered as generous mentor

History professor emeritus Wallace T. MacCaffrey, a former chair of the History Department and an avid scholar of the Elizabethan era, died Dec. 13 in Cambridge, England. He was 93.

An advisor to countless undergraduate and graduate students, MacCaffrey also wrote several influential books about high politics and policymaking in early modern Britain, including Elizabeth I, a biography of the English queen. Friends and colleagues said they remember the former Guggenheim fellow as a diligent historian and supportive mentor.

“He was a towering intellect and consummate scholar, yet he seemed so eager not to intimidate; in conversation he might share a personal detail, such as having to summon all his courage before approaching a daunting task,” Marie C. Henson ’88, one of MacCaffrey’s former students, wrote in an email to The Crimson....