Tarrant Smith News Today

Gaddis Smith, a Yale historian who taught generations of policymakers and politicians the finer points of U.S. foreign policy and who, during the 1970s and ’80s, helped the university navigate between its desire to modernize and the powerful alumni who opposed such change, died Dec. 2 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 89.

One of his students became a president, another an actress. He also helped the university modernize during the 1970s and ’80s.