There was a shul in Boston that removed the mechitza. Rav Soloveitchik would have none of it. He put an ad in the paper saying that anyone who davens there is in cherem [excommunicated]. He got Rav Eliezer Silver to sign the cherem. Rav Silver said upon being asked - A cherem - any time. [He was a colorful individual....].
The Chairman of the Board of the shul got up and said that we are not going to listen to these old fogies and the mechitza is going down!
That night he died of a heart attack.
[Heard from Rav Shachter]
