Overseers' Commemoration

The CRIMSON prints below a minute approved Jan. 13, 1964, by the Board of Overseers of Harvard College:

Grieved by the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy of the Class of 1940, President of the United States, the Board wishes to place in its record for future generations of the Board this expression of sorrow and affection for its former colleague.

John Kennedy was one of Harvard's noblest sons. The World will long remember him as one of the greatest Americans of our time. We need not attempt to set forth the accomplishments, or the traits of character and courage in war and peace, that makes this so. Our contemporaries are well aware of them, and our descendants and successors will be taught them in the classrooms of America. Just as it was not until after his death that we became fully aware of the place that the held in the hearts of men of all civilized nations and races, so will his light shine brighter among them as the years go by.

Within the Harvard family we will remember him not only for all these things but also, among ourselves, for others that are most personal. We are proud that he was one of us, and he made us producer of our University. Not long ago he lived and studied in our halls, walked the familiar paths across the Yard, played on soldiers Field, and in Cambridge grew to manhood. True to his principles he strove to give to Harvard as much as it game him. He was first a director of the Alumni Association and then an Overseer from 1957 to the year of his death. He held the chairmanships of our Board's committees to visit the Departments of Military, Naval and Air Science and the Department of Astronomy, and was also a member of the committees to visit the Department of Government and the Graduate School of Public Administration. Throughout his active public life he never lost touch with the University. It was natural for him to draw on its faculties to on small extent in filling important positions in his administration.

Some years before he became President, he wrote in the Alumni Bulletin: "Harvard has not been maintained with such effort for 300 years merely to give advantage to its graduates in the life struggle. There is constantly the suggestion in the University's over-all atmosphere that something is owed by the graduate, not just to Harvard but more broadly to the general welfare." If evidence is needed to support this statement, it was furnished by John Kennedy's life.