Reynolds Led Atomic Energy Sub-Committee

The upper echelons of the federal government consist of dozens of men and women who were drafted from Harvard's faculty and administration, including Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and even Vice President (and former overseer) Al Gore '69.

Things weren't much different 50 years ago. In August 1946, Harvard Administrative Vice President Edward Reynolds '15 was appointed to a top position at the Atomic Energy Commission.

In October, Reynolds began a term as president of Associated Universities, Inc., a sub-group of the commission.

The sub-group was a research development project with representation from nine East Coast universities: Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Rochester and Yale.

As part of his role, Reynolds was contracted to staff and manage one of the commission's National Research Laboratories at Camp Upton, Long Island.

The lab was made available to all eastern research institutions experimenting with the use and development of atomic energy, drawing its financing for state-of-the-art facilities from the commission.

Reynolds had served in the Navy during World War I and went on to a prominent business career before returning to the armed services in 1942. He worked through World War II as army assistant to the surgeon general and received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work.

In March 1946, Reynolds returned to Harvard. Due to its ever-expanding size, the University was restructuring its hierarchy to ease the work burdens of then-president James B. Conant '14. The Corporation, the University's highest governing body, had created the position of administrative vice president to attend to non-academic and "housekeeping" affairs of the University, and Reynolds stepped in to fill the post.

The fourth in his family to serve in a Harvard administrative position, Reynolds acted as the University's primary non-academic business officer.

As vice president, Reynolds was particularly influential in construction affairs. Over the course of his 14 years at Harvard, he oversaw such projects as the Yenching Library, the University Health Services building, New Quincy House and the Leverett Towers.

Reynolds served as Harvard's administrative vice president until retiring in 1960. His work in business continued through several Boston-based firms' finance committees into the 1970s.

Of the many great achievements of his lifetime, including his work with the commission, Reynolds has said that serving Harvard was "definitely the activity from which I...derived the greatest pleasure and satisfaction."