Public Service professor of Jurisprudence A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. died last night at Massachusetts General Hospital after suffering a stroke at his Newton home Saturday afternoon and several additional strokes Sunday night. He was 70.

Higginbotham taught courses at both the Kennedy School of Government and in the Afro-American Studies department, where he taught Af-Am 195, "Race and the American Legal Process," this semester.

Higginbotham, who in 1964 became America's third black federal judge and later became the first black trustee of Yale University and chief judge of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, was known nationally as an outspoken champion of civil rights.

In 1995 President Clinton awarded Higginbotham the Presidential Medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. That year Clinton also named Higginbotham Commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Condolences and tributes poured in from across the country last night for the late judge. From President Clinton to Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine, to fellow professors and his students, Higginbotham was described as a man respected and loved by all whose lives he touched.

"The President was a great admirer of Judge Higginbotham," said White House spokesperson Barry J. Toiv '77. "He will very much be missed by the country and the President and the First Lady will miss him particularly."

In a statement released last night, Rudenstine said Higginbotham's loss has left a void in the nation and at Harvard.

"In losing Leon Higginbotham we have lost a giant oak, and we are left with an enormous gap in the landscape of the nation," he said. "He was a powerful presence and voice, a voice that has influenced our legal and judicial world for decades."

Rudenstine lauded Higginbotham's strength and conviction in fighting for civil rights.

"Judge Higginbotham always championed the cause of equity and fairness," Rudenstine said. "But he did so without ever diminishing the strength of his conviction that the nation still has a very great distance to travel before African Americans will have gained genuine equity of opportunity."

"The Judge," as his friends and colleaguescalled him, exerted a profound influence on ageneration of lawyers, said Professor of LawCharles J. Ogletree Jr. '54 in a statement lastnight.

"He was not only a mentor but a father figurefor me and for a generation of young lawprofessors and lawyers," he said. "He was theepitome of the people's lawyer."

Ogletree praised his colleague's attention tothe forgotten members of our society.

"Despite his individual merits andaccomplishments, he never hesitated to lend a handto the poor, the voiceless, the powerless and thedowntrodden," he said.

Higginbotham's accomplishments as a lawyerearned him a special place in history, Ogletreesaid. "His great qualities as a judge werereflected in the fact that, along with ThurgoodMarshall, he was at the top of Lyndon Johnson'slist for the first African-American appointment tothe U.S. Supreme Court," he said.

Even as recently as two weeks ago, Higginbothamwas called to testify before the House JudiciaryCommittee. Speaking alongside FrankfurterProfessor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, he told thecommittee that an impeachment of Clinton would beinappropriate and dangerous.