University Drops Janitor Harry Howe With Neither 'Handshake' Nor 'Party'

The way they let Harry Howe go out of the Graduate Center, a man of 65 yrs., after 20 yrs. of service. You wouldn't let a dog go out, he has feelings just like anyone else.-Mrs. Ruth T. Brown.

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What happened to Harry?

Harry Howe retired two weeks ago as assistant superintendent at the Graduate Center. He had served the University for 20 years, doing "janitorial work," according to his ex-boss, Superintendent George E. Leighton.

University officialdom hardly took notice when Harry left. Yesterday, resentment of the slight among some University employees apparently erupted with the classified advertisement above.

There were two versions of the send-off Harry got on the day University regulations forced him to quit. One, expressed in vehement terms by Mrs. Ruth T. Brown, former Grad Center employee, asserted that "no one even shook his hand," and that his fellow workers were plenty unhappy about it.

The other account, voiced by ex-boss Leighton behind his steel-gray, James Hall desk, was that Harry got just what everyone gets. "We've got no obligation, you know," he said.

Harry worked for Leighton in handling mail, keys, supervising cleaning, and "obliging all the boys," Mrs. Brown said. "You're only 65 once. They turned him out with cold feelings after 20 years. It makes us feel sad to meet him on the street. They didn't even shake his hand," she added.

Leighton, under whose supervision Harry had worked since the Graduate Center was built, refuted Mrs. Brown's charges. "I shook hands with him and wished him good luck. What more can you do? Does she expect me to give him a fifty dollar bill?" he asked.

"If that woman is so anxious for him to have a party, why doesn't she throw one herself? All this talk looks to me like a put-up job," he said.

Leighton further added that Mrs. Brown, who lives at 80 Bank St., was "sticking her nose into other people's business." He said that if Harry's fellow workers had wanted to have a party, he would have "sanctioned" it. "That would have been their business," he continued.

Harry, who said yesterday that he worked "in practically all the Houses during the past 20 years," lives at 71 Dunster St., with Mrs. Howe. They have no children, and Harry whiles away much of his newly-won retirement watching television.

Leighton observed that he, himself, had worked 20 years for the University. "I'd just as soon they didn't give me a party. If I could collect my pension tomorrow, I'd take off. The University doesn't owe anybody anything. When I have to quit, I'll thank them for letting me work for them," he said.