Cox to Retire This Year From Full Teaching duties

Archibald Cox '34, Loeb University Professor, will retire from full-time teaching duties after this spring because of a federal requirement that universities retire tenured professors who have reached the age of 70.

University officials, however, said that Cox, who began his Harvard teaching career in 1946, will probably remain here next year to teach part time.

James Vorenberg '48, dean of the Law School, said yesterday that because Law School codes allow 70 year-old professors to teach part-time for two additional years, there is a "good chance" that Cox will teach next year. He added he would be "very surprised" If Cox decided against teaching next year.

Saying he does not want a peaceful retirement but to "keep myself busy" in the coming years, Cox said, "Life would not be any fun without pressure."

Regardless of whether he continues to teach, Cox said he will remain chairman of Common Cause, a public interest lobby group base in Washington, D.C.

Fires

Cox added that he had "some irons in the fire," but he refused to disclose the nature of these projects.

Though he said he enjoys teaching greatly. Cox stressed that he has no choice in deciding when he should retire since federal laws suggest "because I have reached 70, I have become presumptively senile." But Cox said he is not bitter about being forced to reduce his classroom time, adding that when there is a rule, "you have to live with it."

Rex van Middlesworth, a teaching fellow and former law student of Cox, said yesterday from his Houston law office that the law requiring Cox to retire is "to an extent regrettable as he continues to be an able teacher."

Law School colleagues and former students yesterday praised Cox's contribution to Harvard during his long tenure. Van Middlesworth called Cox a "good communicator" whose "accessibility was a rare thing for a busy Harvard Law School Professor."

Vorenburg said Cox played "a critical role" as an advisor to then-president Nathan Pusey in helping him to resolve the crisis within the University in the late '60s.

Andrew L. Kaufman '51, professor of Law, lauded Cox as "a wonderful teacher, a wonderful public servant and a wonderful colleague."

Cox, though, declined to comment on his career at Harvard, saying only. "I think I'll postpone my farewell address."

Cox, a law professor at Harvard from 1946-1961, held the post of United States solicitor general form 1961-1966, and has published many books on constitutional and labor law. He gained national prominence in 1973 as the director of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. He returned as a full-time professor at Harvard in 1976