Emerson College pays tribute to alum Norman Lear

12/07/23 By Audrey Coleman

Tributes and flowers have been placed at Norman Lear’s monument at Emerson College in the days following his death. Lear died Tuesday in Los Angeles of natural causes. He was 101.

Photo courtesy of Audrey Coleman

Norman Lear, ’44, attended Emerson College until 1942 — when he enlisted in the army during World War II. He moved to Hollywood after his service, where he started as a comedy writer before later becoming a film director and producer.

Lear’s most famous production, the sitcom, “All in the Family,” premiered in January 1971. In the sitcom, he crossed a barrier — combining real world news and conflicts with the entertainment of a sitcom show. He personified those conflicts within his main character, Archie Bunker, describing him as a “lovable bigot.” Through a fictional household, Lear encouraged discussions of various social issues in American living rooms during a transformative decade of social change. 

Lear used his TV projects to portray different American families. “The Jeffersons” focused on a rich Black household, “Good Times” and “Sanford and Son” centered on working-class Black families, “Maude” represented feminists (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” showed an unsatisfied housewife), and “One Day at a Time” depicted divorced women (and later a Cuban American family in a 2017 reboot).

Norman Lear was a groundbreaking screenwriter, producer and comedian, as well as a passionate activist and humanitarian. Emerson College granted Lear an honorary degree in 1968 — a Doctor of Humane Letters. The college finished his statue in Boylston Place in 2018, along with a scholarship in his name. At the unveiling event, he said, “I never stopped being in love with Emerson College.”