Five From Harvard on Panel to Choose Man of Century

When tourists stand in front of the John Harvard statue in the spring, Crimson Key guides may well be telling them that John Harvard was selected as the person of the millennium.

With five Harvard minds on a panel of six charged with selecting the person of the millennium, at a benefit for the Boston Public Library, John Harvard might have an unfair advantage.

Of course, members of the Harvard community on the panel may not select the University's founder.

"I think that I will make the person of the millennium Franklin D. Roosevelt ['04], who tackled both the problems of the great depression and the great war," said John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg professor of economics, emeritus, and a participant on the panel.

"I will contend that he dominated the first half of the century and greatly influenced the second half and though there may be figures that are greater, he is central to any American thought," said Galbraith, who has advised several presidents.

But not everyone is as certain of their choice as is Galbraith.

Panelist Bill Kovach, the curator of Harvard's Nieman Foundation and a former editor of the New York Times, is not sure whom he will pick.

"I still haven't made my decision yet," said Kovach.

"Every candidate I have come up with is hardly the most worthy person," Kovach said. "Unfortunately, a lot of them are evil figures who have done great damage to the world, people like Hitler, but their accomplishments are so negative I don't think they are worthy of consideration."

Cowles Professor of Sociology Orlando Patterson is also not sure who he will pick. His assistant said that Patterson had not yet come to a definite conclusion.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, who will not participate in the panel, picked his choices for both the person of the millennium and the person of the century in an interview last week.

"I will not say Elvis Presley," Knowles joked.

For the person of the millennium, he picked Johann Sebastian Bach. Knowles selected British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the person of the century.

Other Harvard-affiliated participants on the panel are Steven Jay Could, Agassiz professor of zoology, and Wendy Kaminer, Radcliffe public policy fellow and a former criminal defense attorney.

The final participant is Mark Leyner, a contemporary novelist.

The panel will be moderated by Marvin Kalb, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School. The panel, entitled "Who will be the person of the century/millennium," will be held tomorrow at the Bostonian Hotel at 7 p.m. It will be preceded by a cocktail reception at 6:30 and followed by a gala party and buffet dinner at 8:15 p.m.

"No nominations have been made [for the person of the millennium]," according to Donna Hanford, the executive assistant to the general manager of the Bostonian Hotel.

Kovach said that the instructions were a little unclear. "It first asked for a person of the millennium and then changed it to the person of the century," he said. "They have given us no instructions at all except to choose a person that might provide for an interesting discussion."

The tickets for the event are priced at $135 and Hanford said partial proceeds will directly benefit the associates of the Boston Public Library.