Radu Florescu (23 October 1925 – 18 May 2014) was a Romanian academic who held the position of Emeritus Professor of History at Boston College. His work on Vlad Dracula includes a series of bestselling books that he co-authored with his colleague Raymond T. McNally. Along with serving as Director of the East European Research Center at Boston College, Florescu was also a philanthropist and an adviser to Edward Kennedy on Balkan and Eastern European affairs. At the time of his death, Radu Florescu was considered the patriarch of the . Life Escape from Romania Florescu was born in Bucharest to an aristocratic , one of the oldest of the extant Romanian Boyar families. He left Romania at the outbreak of World War II and moved to London, as his father, a pro-Allied diplomat who served under Romanian Minister Viorel Tilea to the United Kingdom, defied a recall order from the pro-Axis government of Ion Antonescu. In protest of Romania's new alliance with Nazi Germany, Florescu's father resigned his post and joined the Free Rumanian Committee in opposition to the fascist Antonescu regime. After leaving St. Edward's School, Oxford, Florescu received a scholarship to study history (BA, MA) at Christ Church, Oxford. He moved to Indiana University Bloomington in the United States for his doctorate. Boston during the Cold War With one child, Nicholas, born in Austin, Texas, Radu Florescu moved east and began his academic career as a Professor of history at Boston College. In the Boston area, he will have 3 more children: John (1954), Radu (1961), and Alexandra (1963). At Boston College, he joined forces with Raymond T. McNally, and the two began their research on Vlad the Impaler. Then with McNally and Matei Cazacu, of the Paris Institut des Hautes Etudes, Florescu will go on to write six books on Vlad the Impaler's life. Alongside his work on Vlad the Impaler, Florescu would write seven more books on East European History and on the history of Romania such as The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian principalities, 1821-1854. Radu Florescu created a diplomatic bridge between the United States and Romania. He advised Edward Kennedy on matters of the Balkans, and also served as the press liaison for the White House during the state visit of President Richard Nixon in 1969 in Romania. In 1986, Florescu became the Director of the East European Research Center at Boston