The Three R's of Retirement:

Some retirees may spend their years basking in the Florida sun, while other may fine-tune their golf stroke on the greens of California. But for members of Harvard's exclusive group of professors emeriti, retirement brings a life of new opportunities free from the burdens of teaching and headaches of administration.

But freedom from instructional duties rarely translates into a life of leisure for many retired professors. Most continue to reseach, write, and publish, and some have been even more productive than they were before.

"People think that when you're retired, you have infinite leisure so they ask you to take on commitments that they'd hesitate to ask you while you were teaching," says Paul A. Freund, Loeb University Professor Emeritus. "It becomes a problem of securing the leisure you anticipated when you were teaching."

Freund, who taught at the Law School from 1939 to 1976, said he retired before the mandatory retirement age required by federal law because he wanted more free time. But editing and contributing to an upcoming history of the Supreme Court and other projects have occupied much of his anticipate leisure time.

Retired professors are also called away from quiet retirement to deliver speeches or apply their expertise. "There are always special writing and lecturing responsibilities, particularly in the bicentennial year of the Constitution," says the constitutional law expert.

Loeb University Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox '34 also finds himself with new speaking and lecturing engagements, some as a result of the Bicentennial Celebration. Coupled with his teaching responsibilities at the Law School of Boston University, additions to an already hectic schedule leave the former Watergate special prosecutor pressed for time to serve his other posts.

Cox currently serves as chairman of Common Cause, a Washington, D.C. organization, and as chairman of the board of directors of the Health Effects Institute, a non-profit foundation established and financed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Motor Vehicle Manufactures.

"I'm still a workaholic," says Cox, who works seven days a week. "I run away from the word `retire'."

Ernst Mayr, Agassiz Professor of Zoology Emeritus at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, has also kept up a furious pace, despite his 82 years. Since his retirement in 1974, the former director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology has published 116 books and papers on evolution, biology and philosophy.

His recent books include Evolution and Philosophy, The Growth of Biological Thought and Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance.

Joining Harvard in 1953, Mayr has also accepted several visiting professorships at various universities across the country. Writing recommendations, advising students, and giving guest lectures and seminars occupy some of Mayr's days.

"My retirement has had no effect on my life except that I offer no courses," said Mayr. He still rises at 4:30 a.m. every morning, has a full-time secretary, and comes to the office everyday.

"If you're well motivated, retirement isn't a punishment," says Mayr. "It gives you a greater opportunity."

Back in his office on the top floor of Widener, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature Emeritus John H. Finley '25 has also continued to work regularly since his retirement in 1975. Amidst his cluttered desk and a collection of yellowing photographs, Finley, 83, either reads, or writes on his manual Royal typewriter, which he purchased years ago during his tenure as Eliot House Master.

In 1978, Finley published Homer's Odyssey, which won the Goodwin Prize of the American Philological Association. He has also written a family history about his parents and his years growing up in New Hampshire and Cambridge.

When Finley is not researching, he takes time out to write recommendations for past students and to give guest lectures at Stanford and Oberlin. The former Classics professor has also delivered many Commencement speeches, including addresses at Harvard, Wellesley and Smith.

Turning down posts offered by other schools, most professors emeriti remained at Harvard after their retirement because the University and their work here had become the center of their lives.

Since his wife's death two years ago, Finley says that "study has meant everything to me." Finley says he never looked elsewhere for post-retirement employment.

"I don't know what I'd do without this place," the classics expert says, "Harvard is my life, quite purely and simply."

Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus David Riesman '31 says that he considered teaching elsewhere after he was compelled to retire in 1980, but he too feels that Harvard is like home.

"My whole life really revolved around this area and these colleagueships," he says. "No inducements of weather or opulence would tempt me [to leave]."

Since his decision to remain in Cambridge, Riesman has remained busy as ever. Besides researching academic institutions, he serves on the executive board of the Kennedy School and has taken an active role on President Derek C. Bok's panel on evaluating teaching. In 1984, he served on a national commission working to strengthen university presidential leadership.

Despite his multitude of commitments, Riesman still has time to deliver spot lectures, write recommendations, and advise doctoral students. He sums up his retirement by saying, "My life has changed very little."

Between his weekly lecture, Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith still finds time to write more than ever before. "I spent a lot of time writing before [retirement], and I've spent a lot of time writing since," says the 78-year-old former ambassador to India.

During the past twelve years he has written numerous books and narrated a 13-program British Broadcasting Company series based on his book "The Age of Uncertainty," which took three-and-a-half years to produce.

Recently, Galbraith's economic views have scared investors across the country. In the January issue of "The Atlantic Monthly," the famed ecomomics expert wrote an article drawing disturbing parallels between the 1929 bull market and today's roaring stock exchange. The links include the emergence of speculators, the creation of new financial vehicles that rely heavily on debt, and the hero worship of Wall St. financiers.

Retirement Ain't So Bad

Although most of the professors retired on their own accord, none would have done so without continued access to their offices and Harvard facilities.

"The key to a fair and rewarding outcome is the offering of an opportunity to retired professors to continue research and writing," says Freund, who has a large office just to the left of the entrance on the ground floor of Langdell Hall. From this room cluttered with tons of law papers, magazines, and books, Freund has a ground-level view of Holmes Field.

"The privilege of retaining one's office and access to research facilities makes all the difference," he says.

Cox's office is also located in Langdell Hall, behind several stacks of law books on the third floor. He claims that his office, adorned with paintings of clipper ships in Boston Harbor and Georgetown, is "the biggest, except for the dean's."

Peering out his huge window facing Holmes Field, Cox reflects, "I've been very fortunate that Harvard treats me well."

Mayr, located in a clean, spacious office tucked away on the fifth floor of the Musuem of Comparative Zoology, seems to feel the same way. "I'm most grateful to Harvard that they've given me a place to work," he says.

No Teaching, No Headaches

Most professors, with the exception of Cox, say that they do not miss teaching at all. They retired on their own accord to pursue other interests and make use of the free time that would otherwise have been spent on faculty duties.

Riesman, who taught sociology under the General Education system from 1958 to 1976, said that his job was "very arduous." "I wasn't sorry to drop that burden," he says.

The sociologist said that the energy he expended on logistical problems, such as meeting places, grades, and plagiarism, is now directed toward his own projects.

"I would miss it if I wasn't doing individualistic work," he says.

Other professors agreed with Riesman. "After my many years, I relish the freedom not to have to be in a particular room at a particular time," says Freund.

"Not having to give regular courses gave me extra free time," says Mayr.

But Cox decided to continue teaching. The winter before his retirement he worked out an arrangement with the Boston University Law School because "I love teaching." Cox currently teaches half time at the Law School and still retains his office at Harvard.

However Cox also enjoys the release from the logistical demands of full tenureship. "I am happily free from faculty meetings," he says.

Forced Retirement

Last fall Congress passed a new federal law that prohibits employers from enforcing a mandatory retirement age. The bill includes a seven-year exemption for centers of higher learning, due in part to heavy lobbying by Harvard officials. (See accompanying story)

While many professors feel that prohibiting mandatory retirement would allow healthy and sound individuals to continue teaching well into their 70s, they admit it would adversely affect higher learning in the long run.

Riesman, who retired in 1980, believes that if forced retirement were abolished, universities would be unable to attract the younger generation into a career of academia.

"It will cloud the future for young people," says Riesman. The education expert published "On Higher Education" in 1980 and continues to study issues of leadership and succession at the nation's colleges and universities.

"It's harmful to universites to clog the ranks," says Riesman. He retired by his own choice because "I should make way for someone, provided I have the facilities to work."

Mayr, who retired 13 years ago, also feels a mandatory retirement age is appropriate. "One shouldn't retire people too late," he says. "It's unfair to the younger generation."

But other professors disagree, believing that faculty members should not be forced to retire when they reach the mandatory age.

"I always felt that retirement should be a matter of individual negotiation between the Administration and the professor," says Galbraith.

However Riesman says that problems would arise if the mandatory age was uncapped. "People will be more cautious in granting tenure, because instead of working 20 to 30 years, professors will be teaching 40 to 50 years," he says.

Riesman predicted that "all of academia is likely to suffer" if the mandatory age were abolished. He says that while Harvard may suffer less, small liberal arts colleges will face a tougher time because they tend to have more tenured faculty.

Cox claims that a demographic problem will also affect higher education if professors are not forced to retire. Institutions that expanded their faculty to accommodate the numerous students of the baby boom will have fewer opportunities for younger academic talent, he says.