Ward Churchill, the former University of Colorado Boulder professor fired in 2007 amid findings of academic misconduct, has died at 78 in Atlanta of complications from a stroke, his former attorney confirmed. Churchill had drawn national controversy for an essay comparing some 9/11 victims to Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, calling them 'little Eichmanns.'
The university said it fired him for plagiarism and fabrication in his research on Native Americans, while Churchill maintained the real motive was retaliation for his essay. A Denver jury found in 2009 that CU had unlawfully terminated him for exercising free speech, awarding him a symbolic $1, but courts up through the U.S. Supreme Court declined to order his reinstatement or back pay.
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