Rosenkrantz Bids Farewell

Students, colleagues and friends say it is difficult to find a quintessential anecdote that describes retiring Professor of History of Science Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz '44.

Amid champagne, crackers and pate, the History of Science department yesterday said goodbye to Rosenkrantz, who has taught at Harvard since 1971.

A role model, a kindly teacher with a sense of humor, a groundbreaking researcher and a mother to three and grandmother to seven, the senior faculty member can't be pinned down by a pat tale.

Through small stories, though, aspects of her impact and her legacy at the University emerge. Most of them, fittingly, come from students and former students whose lives she has affected in her years here.

Andrew Robertson, a graduate student in the History of Science, recalls Rosenkrantz as a confidence-building and friendly advisor when he first arrived in the department after receiving a degree in engineering.

"I would go in to talk to her and say look, this whole thing is freaking me out, this is really intimidating," he says, and Rosenkrantz gave him reasurance, advice and help.

Sarah L. Elson '93, who had Rosenkrantz as a thesis adviser this year, praises her mentor. Elson says the professor acted as if the thesis was ""a process we were involved in together....She was very much there for me."

Michele Murphy, a first-year graduate student in the History of Science, says the first contact she had with Rosenkrantz was the notification of her acceptance to Harvard.

The senior professor called her and said, "I'm looking forward to having you as a colleague," and Murphy has never forgotten that greeting.

"She's been very much a role model...a role model of someone who keeps learning, keeps doing good work," Murphy says.

Especially for women in a field not as gender-balanced as some would like, Rosenkrantz's role as mentor has been a key one, although she herself refers aspiring female scholars to more recent arrivals in the academy.

"One of the things you're not, as you're getting along in years, is a good model for the younger scholars that are coming along," she says, but students and colleagues disagree.

"She is one of the people who has made my life here better...She's been tremendously important to other people's experience at Harvard," says McKay Professor of Computer Science Barbara J. Grosz, who chaired the Committee on the Status of Women while Rosenkrantz served on it.

That service is a fundamental part of what Rosenkrantz has achieved at Harvard, says Peter L. Galison '77, professor of the history of science.

"She is somebody who has exerted a really moral force, not just a scholarly force," he says.

She has worked to make Harvard more inclusive to both faculty and students, "helping us to understand what the transformation of the University meant as we became a consciously more inclusive community," says Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn '57.

But Rosenkrantz says she sees her own legacy as an intellectual one. An academic pioneer, she was one of the first to study the history of public health and medicine at Harvard, colleagues say, and she has always been a quick, incredibly intelligent and brilliant scholarly presence.

Mendelsohn says, "We were coteaching the fundamental seminar for all entering graduate students. What I'll remember is the fact that she never let me get away with anything. She'd stop me cold."

But retirement will not take that presence out of the department or the University.

"Next year I'm going to teach a course in evening school," she says. "I'm going to continue to be part of this community."

She will also continue her research, finishing the book she is working on and beginning others.

And students and colleagues say they hope she will keep her promise to be a presence in the community she has belonged to for so long.

"I think my own hope is that Professor Rosenkrantz will continue to be involved in the intellectual life of this department," says Allan M. Brandt, professor of the history of science.

"She has a lot of wisdom we could all benefit from," says Grosz

"I would go in to talk to her and say look, this whole thing is freaking me out, this is really intimidating," he says, and Rosenkrantz gave him reasurance, advice and help.

Sarah L. Elson '93, who had Rosenkrantz as a thesis adviser this year, praises her mentor. Elson says the professor acted as if the thesis was ""a process we were involved in together....She was very much there for me."

Michele Murphy, a first-year graduate student in the History of Science, says the first contact she had with Rosenkrantz was the notification of her acceptance to Harvard.

The senior professor called her and said, "I'm looking forward to having you as a colleague," and Murphy has never forgotten that greeting.

"She's been very much a role model...a role model of someone who keeps learning, keeps doing good work," Murphy says.

Especially for women in a field not as gender-balanced as some would like, Rosenkrantz's role as mentor has been a key one, although she herself refers aspiring female scholars to more recent arrivals in the academy.

"One of the things you're not, as you're getting along in years, is a good model for the younger scholars that are coming along," she says, but students and colleagues disagree.

"She is one of the people who has made my life here better...She's been tremendously important to other people's experience at Harvard," says McKay Professor of Computer Science Barbara J. Grosz, who chaired the Committee on the Status of Women while Rosenkrantz served on it.

That service is a fundamental part of what Rosenkrantz has achieved at Harvard, says Peter L. Galison '77, professor of the history of science.

"She is somebody who has exerted a really moral force, not just a scholarly force," he says.

She has worked to make Harvard more inclusive to both faculty and students, "helping us to understand what the transformation of the University meant as we became a consciously more inclusive community," says Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn '57.

But Rosenkrantz says she sees her own legacy as an intellectual one. An academic pioneer, she was one of the first to study the history of public health and medicine at Harvard, colleagues say, and she has always been a quick, incredibly intelligent and brilliant scholarly presence.

Mendelsohn says, "We were coteaching the fundamental seminar for all entering graduate students. What I'll remember is the fact that she never let me get away with anything. She'd stop me cold."

But retirement will not take that presence out of the department or the University.

"Next year I'm going to teach a course in evening school," she says. "I'm going to continue to be part of this community."

She will also continue her research, finishing the book she is working on and beginning others.

And students and colleagues say they hope she will keep her promise to be a presence in the community she has belonged to for so long.

"I think my own hope is that Professor Rosenkrantz will continue to be involved in the intellectual life of this department," says Allan M. Brandt, professor of the history of science.

"She has a lot of wisdom we could all benefit from," says Grosz