Tom Lehrer, a popular song satirist in the Fifties and Sixities, lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching maths at Harvard

Tom Lehrer, the popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died.

The influential comic stylist and mathematician rose to fame lampooning mainstream American mores in the 1950s and 1960s, then retreated into academic life.