Jerome Lyle Rappaport Sr

Jerome “Jerry” Lyle Rappaport Harvard AB 1947, LLB 1949, MPA 1963, died early Monday morning December 6 2021. He was 94 years old. Rappaport left an indelible impact at Harvard University and beyond, making it possible for the University to launch many significant initiatives, including the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the student-run Harvard Law School Forum, the HLS Rappaport Forum, and dozens of fellowships and visiting lectureships. He will be remembered for his astute ability to connect theory with practice and public policy as well as for his skill in creating fruitful partnerships across sectors. Born August 17, 1927, in New York City, Rappaport entered Harvard College in March of 1944 as a 16-year-old freshman as part of an experimental joint degree program in which students concurrently advanced toward their undergraduate and law school degrees. At the beginning of his Harvard education, the University was on a three-semester-a-year schedule thanks to World War II, and in the fall of 1945, he began his studies at Harvard Law School as an 18-year-old student still working on his baccalaureate. After graduating from HLS at age 21, Rappaport dove headfirst into the historic 1949 Boston mayoral election, leading the campaign of the reform candidate John Hynes to victory over the legendary machine of James Michael Curley. He created the New Boston Committee in 1950, a juggernaut that helped elect a young, three-term Representative John F. Kennedy to the U.S. Senate. He attended Harvard Kennedy School, graduating in 1963 with his Master’s in Public Administration. Rappaport’s philanthropy extends beyond the Harvard campus to other organizations, including Boston College Law School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, McLean Hospital, the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. He and his wife, Phyllis, who chairs the family’s foundation, also co-founded the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. All told, he and his wife, Phyllis, have supported the education of more than 700 current and emerging leaders through partnerships with local academic and artistic institutions, including public policy fellows, medical research fellows, and art prize winners. At 24, Rappaport married his first wife, with whom he had six children during a 10-year marriage. A few years after their divorce, Rappaport married his second wife and had two more children. That marriage, too, lasted 10 years. Phyllis Rappaport, who met her husband when she was 29 and he was 49, were married more than 40 years. She has two children from a previous marriage.