Harry Huge, a renowned US attorney and philanthropist, Honorary Fellow of the University of Tartu, Estonian Honorary Consul in South Carolina, passed away on 27 April.

Harry Huge received his BA from Nebraska Wesleyan University (1959) and his Doctor of Law degree from Georgetown University Law School (1963). He also held honorary degrees by Nebraska Wesleyan University (2005) and the College of Charleston (2017).

Harry Huge was actively involved in the US civil rights movement in the late 1960s and became a renowned attorney in the early 1970s. From 1977 to 1981, Mr Huge served as a member of the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Strategic Weapons, advising President Carter during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union.

Harry Huge rendered great services to the Republic of Estonia. At the end of the 1980s, when he first arrived in Estonia, he met with Arnold Rüütel, Endel Lippmaa, and other political leaders of the time. These meetings prompted him to volunteer as the foreign representative of Estonia at a time when the Estonian state did not de facto exist. On the eve of Estonia’s restoration of independence, from 1990 to 1991, he represented Estonia’s interests in Washington, for which he was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana in 2006. In 2010, Mr Huge was named an Honorary Consul of the Republic of Estonia for the state of South Carolina.

Harry Huge’s contacts with the University of Tartu began in 2006. During his stay in Estonia, he visited the university for the first time and established collaborative contacts between the UT and his alma mater, Nebraska Wesleyan University. As a result of his active mediation, a partnership agreement was signed with Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2007 and with the College of Charleston in 2013. Student exchanges under these agreements were supported by travel grants from the Harry and Reba Huge Foundation, founded by Harry Huge.

The Harry and Reba Huge Foundation has also contributed to promoting students’ entrepreneurship and supported the development and implementation of research-based business ideas of entrepreneurial students. From 2015, the foundation has supported the participation of entrepreneurial young people from the University of Tartu in the programme “Network Globally, Act Locally” (NGAL), aiming to foster students’ entrepreneurial mind by practical entrepreneurship studies.

In 2017, Harry Huge was nominated as Honorary Fellow of the University of Tartu for contributing to the promotion of Estonian-US educational relations.

We extend our condolences to Harry Huge’s family.