Thirty years back: the search for President Derek Bok

Since Nathan M. Pusey '28 resigned from the Harvard presidency in February 1970, the University has chosen two presidents and is now on the brink of picking a third.

Although the issues facing the Harvard presidential selection committee are drastically different today than they were in 1970, the Harvard's presidential selection process, rooted in tradition, has changed little over the past three decades.

The search for Pusey's successor Derek C. Bok provides a glimpse into the procedures and timing of the current process.

The presidential search of 1970-1971 that resulted in Bok's selection lasted nearly nine months and eliminated 1,200 candidates.

In February 1970, Pusey said he would resign, two years earlier than had been anticipated. Pusey had presided over a time of unprecedented student unrest and political controversy. Following on the heels of the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration, universities around the country were experiencing revolutionary change.

Harvard students took over University Hall at the end of 1969 only to be evicted by the police at Pusey's command. Students considered Pusey's action an unnecessary use of force. Following the take-over of University Hall, a number of top administrators involved resigned, opening up Harvard for a new administrative overhaul. Pusey officially stated his resignation in February of 1970, giving the Board of Overseers one year to find a replacement.

Seeking Bok

A committee of five Corporation members--two lawyers, two professors and one retired New York entrepreneur, led by Francis H. Burr '35--immediately set to work, sending out 203,000 letters to alumni, faculty and students, asking the community to help compile a list of candidates. They received 1,200 names--800 more than the search committee received this year. The search committee spent more than 30 hours each week on the selection.

Much like now, many universities were looking for leaders. Positions were also open at Boston University, MIT, Brandeis University, Suffolk University and Columbia University.

During this time of revolt, serving as president of a university that stood for authority and tradition was a daunting task. When informed that he was a possible candidate, Carl Keyson, head of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, said, "I'm crazy, but I'm not that crazy."

Many felt that Harvard needed a strong, outspoken leader, someone qualified, flexible, innovative and maybe even brash--someone who represented the change universities were undergoing. The Crimson reported that the search committee's model for the new president was Kingman Brewster, 51, then president of Yale. Once a professor at Harvard Law School, Brewster was everything a president needed to be: charming, outspoken, diplomatic and committed to academics.

By November, the five committee members, after countless hours of collaboration with faculty and students, had narrowed the list to 69 candidates, half of whom came from within Harvard.

"I was horrified to see that I was one of them," Bok joked in retrospect in a recent interview. "I tried to stay as far away from [the search] as possible."

At that time, Bok, a graduate of Stanford University, had been serving as dean of Harvard Law School for two years and had set to work holding the law school together. He said that in retrospect he still had more work to complete at the law school and was not looking to moving on yet.

"I was not favorably disposed to [being president]," he says. "I wanted to complete what I was doing at the law school. It would be a great shame to give that all up."

Bok prominently figured in speculation about the search throughout the fall. In the Dec. 2, 1970 issue of The Crimson, Bok's picture even appeared in the "Clip and Save" section of wallet-size photos of would-be celebrities, right next to a picture of Ali McGraw from Love Story.

By Dec. 3, after further deliberation with faculty and students, the list of candidates shrunk to one third the size--23 names.

By the time the list of 23 names was officially released, three of the five board members had already decided on Bok, according to media reports from the time.

Most of the candidates came from within Harvard--the youngest being Roger Rosenblatt, the Master of Dunster House who was a mere 29 years old. Among those named, there were 11 scientists, seven economists and two presidents of other universities.

But the list soon narrowed further as many of the 23 were offered jobs elsewhere.

While the committee continued to release dozens of names, it was speculated in the press that the top two candidates were Bok and Dean of the Faculty John T. Dunlop. Dunlop and Bok were viewed as representing two different generations. Dunlop was part of the older administration and 16 years older than Bok.

Ten days later, a decision had been made, and senior fellow Burr made a personal trip to Bok's house to offer him the position of president.

By Dec. 23, Bok said that he preferred to remain dean of the law school. He was asked to reconsider.

Bok recalls that it was the charms of Yale President Brewster--one of Bok's mentors--which finally convinced him to take the job.

Bok had first met Brewster as a third year law student at Harvard when Brewster was his professor. Told by the committee that Bok needed a little persuading, Brewster invited Bok and his wife Sissela to a dinner in New York.

From Appointment to Inaguration

Finally, after a long and grueling search, Jan. 7, 1971marked Bok's official appointment, making him the first president since the 17th century to have attended a college other than Harvard.

For the next five and a half months until Pusey stepped down, Bok spent time in Mass. Hall learning about the various graduate schools, considering appointments for the open administrative positions and preparing for the coming change.

"I accumulated a lot of impressions on people's feelings during that time," he says.

Students called him "The Answer," "The Savior" and even "The Academy's Messiah."

And, in his 20-year tenure, Bok lived up to his names. He oversaw the Harvard-Radcliffe merger of 1977, participated in restructuring the curriculum and implemented many other changes.

Changing Times

But now Harvard, poised at the beginning of the 21st century in a time of campus rest rather than a period of student rebellion, must chose a new kind of leader.

"The one thing you mustn't do is pick a president to solve the problems of the immediate past," Bok says, specifying that he is speaking only of problems that affect the academic community generally. Instead, Harvard should seek a president willing to face new issues and concerns of the future.

"Universities are in a position where they can think very creatively," Bok says. "They are undergoing a larger scale of change. They require thinking in larger terms."

Among the issues for academia in the future, Bok believes, are globalization and a possible physical presence overseas. New technology presents new challenges and opens new doors that have large effects on education.

"I don't think I perceived when I came that sort of challenge," Bok says.

Universities, now armed with formidable endowments, need someone who can think creatively about spending those funds, while also integrating new and innovative technology into the educational process, he says.

Although Bok has been interviewed by the current presidential search committee, he says he won't meddle in the search process. Instead, he will continue with his academic work and let the 27th president solve the problems of the future. In the meantime, he watches the process with an objective eye, reserving judgement and only speaking if called upon.