Vogts Receive Baton and Key In Kirkland Masters Ceremony

Evon Z. Vogt Jr., professor of Social Anthropology, and his wife Catherine C. Vogt, research assistant in Anthropology, received tokens of leadership and hospitality in an afternoon ceremony yesterday marking their installation as master and co-master of Kirkland House.

President Bok handed the traditional House baton to Vogt, who succeeds Arthur Smithies, Ropes Professor of political Economy, as the sixth master of Kirkland House.

Vogt accepted the baton, nothing that the Maya Indians also own batons which, they believe, possess an inner soul placed there by the gods to foster leadership.

"All of this I have explained in one of my recent books, published by the Harvard University Press," Vogt said, pausing dramatically, "which I present gratis to the House library."

President Horner gave Catherine Vogt the Kirkland House key which she said symbolized a "concern for and hospitality toward the members of Kirkland House."

Edward F. Chamberlain, House superintendent since 1947, later explained that the handmade key of hospitality originally fit two of the Kirkland House gates. In 1932 it disappeared, only to be found in 1956 in a New Hampshire pawnshop by a Harvard graduate and key buff who returned it to the House.

In appreciation of the key and as a token of the Vogts' interest in the House, Catherine Vogt presented a check of an undisclosed amount to Stephen H. Dart '75, chairman of the Kirkland House Committee, to help fund a proposed student lounge.

At the end of the 20-minute ceremony, the 200 students, faculty and administrators filed into the dining hall for a formal steak and wine dinner.