The Man Behind it All

Thomas W. "Steve" Stephenson '37 plays down his role in planning Harvard's 350th Celebration.

"There was a committee that was set up in 1980 to develop the concept for the 350th, I just inherited it from them," says the general secretary of the 350th Celebration.

But those who have worked with him putting together the Crimson's big birthday bash see Stephenson's role a little differently. "If you want details Steve Stephenson is the man to see. He tackles the nitty-gritty details of the job," says Francis H. Burr '35, former senior fellow of the Corporation and one of the ceremony's chief organizers.

"We all owe him a debt of gratitude," agrees Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs Fred L. Glimp '50, another of the 350th's key planners.

The accolades should come as no surprise to Stephenson, who is no neophyte when it comes to Harvard birthday celebrations. Leaning back against the chair of his tiddy Holyoke Center office, Stephenson recalls his own undergraduate days and Harvard's Tercentenary Celebration:

"My most vivid memory of the 300th is watching Franklin Delano Roosevelt ['04], who was President, sitting in a top hat and morning coat. He was protected by a tent as the rain poured down."

Stephenson, who was president of the Harvard Debating Council in 1936, also remembers the more modest role he played in that celebration. He debated by radio with the president of the Cambridge Union as part of those earlier festivities. The topic of that transatlantic competition?

"Damn if I remember," laughs Stephenson--who has no trouble at all remembering the name of the "track star" who beat him out for the honor of being the featured undergraduate speaker at the 300th's convocation ceremony.

Stephenson spent 38 of the years between that party and the one which begins next September away from his Harvard, working in Wilmington, Del., where he headed Dupont's public relations arm. But during those years, Stephenson maintained his ties to Harvard.

"Good heavens, it seems to me we houseguested every Harvard person who came to Wilmington," says Stephenson's wife, Libby.

After retiring from Dupont, Stephenson stepped up his work for Harvard and for his other alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy. At Exeter--where Libby Stephenson recalls spending two-and-a-half "wonderful years"--Stephenson coordinated alumni activities and ran reunions. Stephenson also managed to picked up a little more partying experience at the New Hampshire prep school; he planned Exeter's bicentenial celebration.

The Stephensons left Exeter for Cambridge in 1980, and Stephenson has been planning the celebration, which he calls a "family affair," ever since.

Despite Stephenson's choice of words, however, the party he has put together won't resemble any backyard barbeque you've ever seen. The event will cost more than $1 million. Although President Ronald W. Reagan snubbed Harvard, the Prince of Wales and the Aga Khan '59 will find time to commemorate the 350th anniversary of higher education in America.

Hundreds of event will be crammed into the four day celebration, and Stephenson says he most looks foreward to the more than 100 academic symposia, which Vice President Glimp calls, "the real meat of the affair."

"A friend looked over the list of the symposia and said that if you could attend all of them, it would be the equivalent of a college education," Stephenson says.

Although the event's organizers stress that the 350th will not be a fundraising event, Stephenson says he hopes the event will get the University some favorable media attention. "We'd like to have a positive projection of the University, and we think this is that type of an opportunity."

And Stephenson might be the man to get the University that kind of exposure. He recently took a crash course in media events.

Two months ago when 12 divestment protesters, including area union leaders and Harvard alumni, wanted to draw attention to Harvard's South Africa-related investments, they decided to take over a Harvard office. They chose Stephenson's.

Renaming the 350th headquarters "The Office of University Divestment" when they moved in a few minutes before 5 p.m., the protesters said they would remain until "someone in a position of authority" spoke to them. Hours after visits from several Harvard administrators, however, the protesters began chanting "Divest now! We won't wait!" and left Stephenson's office--just in time to make the 11 p.m. news.

After six years of hard work, 30,000 or so undergraduates, alumni and friends of Harvard will enjoy the results of Stephenson's efforts next September. But then what's next for Stephenson?

He plans to start right in planning his own class' 50th reunion, which will take place next year.

"That would be like falling off a log," Libby Stephenson laughs.