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Freshmen entering this summer are the first Hardvardmen in 42 years who will not meet Miss. Anne MacDonald, administrative assistant to the Committee on Admissions. Miss MacDonald, who died on June 24, corresponded with over 35,000 Harvard students before they entered College, and untold thousands who applied for admission and were not accepted. She was an institution in the University, and well-known to school-masters all over the United States.
Miss MacDonald first came to Harvard in January, 1902, a bright girl of 20 who was hired as executive secretary to the Committee. Her career was an unbroken epic of service for three Admissions Directors, John G. Hart '93, Henry Penny packer '88, and Richard M. Gummere '07, present Director, under whom she attained the rank of Administrative Assistant in 1942.
One of her fondest childhood memories was of meeting Rudyard Kipling, who was a friend of her father and who had vacationed near her home in Brattlebore, Vermont. After coming to Harvard, she lived a quiet life in Boston, devoting her major interest to the University.
Dean Gummere, who worked with Miss MacDonald for the last ten years, remembers her as a very objective person with great ability for understanding people and their individual problems. Thousands of Harvardmen came to her for advice just because they liked her and the way she helped them out.
"She was adamant with regard to the fundamental regulations of admission." said Dean Gummere, "but liberal in her interpretation of individual problems. Both alumni of Harvard and school men all over the United States will remember her with respect and affection. What her colleagues in University Hall feel cannot be adequately expressed.
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