One of the greatest cultural historian and public intellectual that America ever saw died peacefully in his sleep Thursday night at his son-in-law's home in San Antonio, Texas.

French-born American Jacques Barzun may have written on wide range of topics, but he is better known as philosopher of education who predicted the fall of western education. He was 104. His death was announced by Arthur Krystal, Barzun's friend and the executor of his estate.

He was a critic of American universities in his essays condemning their curriculum. As NY Times points out, in his essay The American University (1968) Barzun says the curriculums had become an undisciplined 'bazaar' of miscellaneous studies.

His book Teacher in America (1945) had a strong layman readership and had a game-changing influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United States. In 2000, he became a NYT best-seller author with his book, 'From Dawn to Decadence', an 800-page work on modern western history.

He was a professor at Columbia for almost half a decade. When he first came to Columbia as a student he was barely 15, but immediately after his graduation, was hired as an instructor in its History department. Until his retirement in 1975, Barzun served different roles at the Ivy League School, from dean of graduate faculties to the rank of University Professor, the highest rank in the university.

Even after retirement, he did not fail to observe Columbia's affairs. Last year, he wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal criticizing Columbia's exclusion of ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps).

An avid baseball fan, one of his famous quotes, "Whoever wants to know the heart and soul of America had better learn baseball," now adores the wall of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Unlike many intellectuals who make the scholarly distinction between genre fiction and literary fiction, Barzun did not snub popular fiction. He loved detective fiction. He even edited and wrote the introduction to the 1961 anthology, The Delights of Detection, which included stories by G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, Rex Stout, and others.

In 2003, Barzun was awarded a "Presidential Medal of Freedom," the highest civilian honor by President Bush. In 2010, he received a National Humanities Medal. He was also made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France's highest award.