Alfred the Gorilla
Alfred died on 10 March 1948. The press at the time speculated that ‘his pet hate got him in the end’, linking Alfred's dislike of aeroplanes with the passage of one over the zoo shortly before his death. The actual cause of his demise was tuberculosis which he contracted a year before and despite his keepers best efforts, he had been unable to recover. His death was mourned by many of the regular visitors to the zoo, some of whom were even inspired to compose poems in his honour.
William Alfred
William Alfred (August 16, 1922 – May 20, 1999) was a playwright and Professor of English literature at Harvard University. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the Army tank corps and quartermaster's corps in World War II. He received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1948, and received an M.A. in English from Harvard in 1949. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1954. He began teaching at Harvard that same year and was appointed full professor in 1963, and in 1980 named Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of the Humanities. He retired in 1991.