Henry Rosovsky, an economic historian who as a Harvard University dean was instrumental in imposing a back-to-basics core curriculum while establishing groundbreaking undergraduate programs in Black and Jewish studies, died on Nov. 11 at his home in Cambridge, MA. He was 95.

What eventually became the Department of Afro-American Studies was considered an underachieving stepchild until 1991, when Professor Rosovsky recruited Henry Louis Gates Jr. from Duke University as its chairman.

He was also the first Jewish dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, serving from 1973 to 1984. In 1978, he founded Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies.

In 1978, following his recommendations, the faculty redefined “an educated person” as one who has an “informed acquaintance” with five academic areas: literature and the arts, history, social and philosophical analysis, science and mathematics, and foreign languages and culture.