Sword Left Job Because of D.A. Probe

David G. Sword '93, the former treasure of the Eliot House ice skating charity Evening With Champions, resigned his new job in Toronto because he is at the focus of an investigation by the Middlesex district attorney into funds missing from the charity, a colleague of Sword's said Friday.

Speaking by phone from Toronto, Hugh Silk '91, who has helped Sword found a private youth service called Serve Canada, said Sword had resigned after a special meeting of the five staff members of the new service earlier this month.

"We all sat down as a group, and David offered to resign, and we all decided that was the best thing," Silk said.

The district attorney is investigating why $160,000 from Evening With Champions accounts is missing. That money was supposed to have gone to the Jimmy Fund, a local charity for cancer research and treatment.

Investigators have focused on Sword and Charles K. Lee '93, the former co-chair of the event. According to a highly-placed source and the Boston Globe, Sword allegedly told another student in Evening With Champions that he had taken some money, and that student reported the matter to College officials.

Silk said the program's advisory committee of leading entrepreneurs, educators and community servants, as well as its corporate sponsors, had been consulted on the decision.

"You're in Boston. You know about what's going on," said Silk, who lived in North House when he was a Harvard student. "David needs to tend to that."

In an interview published by the Toronto Star last week, Sword gave no reason for his resignation, but he said he was disappointed to be leaving the youth service.

"There's so many emotions right now--pride, excitement about a great program...and deep frustration, deep disappointment," Sword said.

Silk, Sword and Cynthia Godsoe '93 have founded Serve Canada, which is modeled on City Year, a youth services program centered in Boston which President Clinton has adopted as a model for his national service plan.

Silk said he and Sword had first had the idea for the program, and Godsoe joined the group a short time later.

"We just met at Harvard," Silk said. "I was in North House, and he knew the girls across the hall."

All three have some connection to Toronto. Godsoe is from Toronto, Silk is from the suburb of Milton and Sword's family, which moved frequently, has also lived in the Canadian an city.

Silk said the group would add a staff member to replace Sword. He said there would be a two-week delay in the opening of the new program, which will involve recruiting college students, homeless people and others to work on humanitarian projects in the city of Toronto, but that the delay nation.

Corporate sponsors, including the Bank of Nova Scotia and McDonald's, have continued to maintain their support for the program in the wake of Sword's resignation, Silk said.

"A lot of businesses do a lot of talking about improving education, and this [program] gives them a chance to do it," Silk said.