Tom Lehrer, the Harvard-trained mathematician whose razor-sharp songs skewered American politics and culture in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97. His death on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was confirmed by longtime friend David Herder to the New York Times. No cause was specified. Born in New York City in 1928, Lehrer entered Harvard at 15, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics before turning a campus hobby into a brief but celebrated musical career. He recorded his first album, “Songs by Tom Lehrer,” in 1953 for just $15 and went on to write roughly 37 songs, among them “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “The Elements,” “The Vatican Rag” and “National Brotherhood Week.” A 1960 live recording earned a Grammy nomination, yet he largely abandoned performing after 1967, famously declaring that “political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” Lehrer spent most of his professional life in academia, teaching mathematics at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California–Santa Cruz, and composing material for the groundbreaking television satire “That Was the Week That Was.” In 2020 he placed all of his lyrics and recordings in the public domain, saying he no longer wished to collect royalties. His sardonic wit has been cited as an influence by artists ranging from Randy Newman to “Weird Al” Yankovic, ensuring a legacy that outlived his brief time on stage.