Candlelight Vigil Captured

Speeches, music commemorate global health pioneer Paul Farmer

By HMS Communications Care Delivery HMS Community
Unlit candles and paper holders line a stone wall at the edge of a snowy HMS Quadrangle, with Gordon Hall visible in background
Candles await mourners on March 4. Image: Steve Lipofsky

On March 4, hundreds of mourners gathered on the Harvard Medical School Quadrangle to remember and celebrate pioneering global health physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer, who died unexpectedly in February.

Listen below to the speakers' remarks and music performances from that evening, and read more about the vigil here.

Read a full transcript of the event [PDF].

Opening remarks by George Q. Daley, Dean of HMS


Lisa Wong, associate co-director of the HMS Arts and Humanities Initiative and assistant professor of medicine, part-time, at Massachusetts General Hospital, and members of the Longwood Symphony and HMS Chamber Music Society perform "Air" by J.S. Bach


Remarks by Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health


Remarks by Louise Ivers, HMS professor of global health and social medicine and professor of medicine at Mass General


Remarks by Josh Ellis, HMS medical student and student in the HMS master’s program in global health delivery


Christina Lively, senior education coordinator for the master of medical sciences in global health delivery program, delivers remarks and performs "Mountains Beyond Mountains"


Remarks by Remy Pacifique, pharmacy lead for Partners In Health in Liberia and a student in the HMS master’s program in global health delivery


Remarks by Wilfredo Matias, former resident in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity


Candle lighting; Joia Mukherjee, associate professor of global health and social medicine at HMS and chief medical officer of PIH, and Lively perform "Amazing Grace"; Martha Vedrine, admissions and recruitment coordinator at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, performs "Chè Ségnè, Kinbin Min-m"


Remarks by Cliff Tabin, the HMS George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics and head of the HMS Department of Genetics


Remarks by Joe Rhatigan, associate professor of global health and social medicine at HMS and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s


Third-year medical student Adetomiwa Owoseni and chorus perform “Soon and Very Soon”


Closing remarks by Mukherjee


Mukherjee performs "Give Light"; Owoseni and chorus perform “This Little Light of Mine”