Gene Brucker, professor of history emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, died July 9, 2017, at the age of 92.

He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1947, and earned a Ph.D. in history from Princeton in 1954. That year Brucker went to Berkeley, and he taught there until he retired in 1991. He was very active in his department and was chair from 1969 to 1972. Brucker was also chair of the Berkeley division of the academic senate from 1984 to 1986.

Brucker was a specialist in early modern European history. He published more than 30 articles and essays and wrote 11 books, including Florentine Politics and Society, 1343-1378 and The Civic World of Renaissance Florence. A colleague wrote that Brucker “was much more than a scholar — he was a citizen of the university.”

Brucker made efforts to add more women faculty members to the history department when he was its chair. His daughter, Wendy, said her father “was a very quiet, very humble man, considering his very distinguished accomplishments.” She added that he was unerringly polite and would go above and beyond to help students in their professional careers.

He is survived by a son and two daughters.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1954