Anthony Harris, retired professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, died peacefully at home Dec. 4, 2017. He was 76.
Harris graduated from Queens College, CUNY, with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1964. He went to England and earned another bachelor’s degree from the University of Cambridge in philosophy and English in 1966.
Returning to the United States, Harris earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton in 1973, beginning a career-long study of criminology and statistics. He then began a 30-year affiliation with the University of Massachusetts, retiring as a professor of sociology in 2002.
At UMass, he was the founding director of the criminal-justice program. He also maintained an active research program demonstrating the impact of medical advances on the lethality of criminal assault. He had visiting fellowships at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies and in the psychology department at Harvard.
Harris is survived by his wife, Rita, whom he married in 1964; three children; and three grandsons.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.