death of a martyr?

After finishing the book, i'm not sure how i feel about Edward Cavan. At the beginning of the book i had expected to learn a lot about this eclectic professor's life but the novel worked to illustrate all that he had left behind instead. None of the characters appealed to me much and they kept mentioning how Harvard would never be the same again but it seems that it took 5 years after he dies for any tangible change to manifest. If anything, i learned that professors and professional academics have things that they find worth living, or dying for, besides just their areas of study. Most enter the teaching profession so that they can find stability and further their studies of their specialties. As students, i think it is difficult to see our professors as people that can be passionate about other things as well.
Cavan was a literature (?) professor while his friend Damon Phillips was a physics professor. Yet they both felt so strongly about politics that they lost their cordiality to each other based off a small discrepancy. For someone like Cavan, who was portrayed as quite a solitary and lonely figure, this would definitely be a hefty price to pay for the sake of his politcal beliefs.
The character i disliked the most was Grace Kimlock. She seemed full of passion but all of her feelings would just erupt all over the place. Also, despite having been a steady character throughout the novel, by its end, i still had no idea who she really was. What was her place in the Harvard community? Was it common for outsiders such as herself to really be so immersed in academia society among professors like she was?
May Sarton paints Cambridge as a foundation for all the characters, even Edward's sister who is just visiting for the funeral. However, none of the characters or the town seemed alive to me. The setting seemed completely dreary and bleak, unlike the Princeton of This Side of Paradise. Maybe Sarton was trying to extend the lonliness of Edward onto everyone else...?