Kenneth Jay Boss (1935–2014), longtime Curator of Malacology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University, made significant contributions to malacology, including through his diverse publications on molluscan systematics and the history of malacology; curation of the mollusk collections at the Museum of Comparative Zoology; and teaching undergraduate and graduate students. In the Mollusca, he described 22 species, five genera, two family-level names, and one superorder; he also co-authored a new genus and species in the Polychaeta (Annelida). This paper discusses his professional career and catalogs his publications and new taxa.