Mircea Eliade, renowned historian of religions and professor of history at the University of Chicago, passed away on April 22, 1986 at age 79. Eliade was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1907, the son of a Romanian army officer. He received a doctorate in comparative history of religions in 1933 and went on to become one of the foremost living scholars of religions and philosophies of traditional societies, writing and lecturing extensively on the subject. His works included such notable titles as The Myth of the Eternal Return and The Sacred and the Profane. Over the course of his career, he authored more than 60 books, countless articles and essays and translated countless works from a variety of ancient and modern languages. He was also highly influential as a professor, teaching at the University of Chicago for 25 years. Eliade's legacy will long outlive him, remembered for the tremendous impact he had on the field of history of religions.