Thomas N. Bisson *58

At age 94, Tom died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., June 28, 2025.

Born March 30, 1931, in New York, he graduated from Haverford in 1951 and earned a Ph.D. in history from Princeton in 1958.

He taught at Amherst, Brown, and Swarthmore before joining the faculty at Berkeley in 1967. From 1988 until his retirement in 2005, he was the Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History at Harvard. Tom’s primary focus was on institutional history, with a special interest in how power was exercised and how it was experienced. His Crisis of the Twelfth Century was an interpretation of the origins of European government, grounded in such topics as parliaments, fiscal regimes, and feudalism.

Tom had a particular interest in the history of Catalonia, about which he wrote The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History, and Tormented Voices, about the experience of medieval peasants. Catalonia recognized his work in reconstructing the region’s early history with election as a corresponding member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, an honorary doctorate from the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, and the Cross of St. George.

Predeceased by his wife, Carroll, he is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren. 

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.