Search For Cleary's Successor Begins

Harvard's search for a new Director of Athletics has officially begun with advertisements running in various publications this month.

The job description--published in recent issues of the NCAA News, the Chornicle of Higher Education, and the Harvard alumni newsletter News and Views--solicits applicants who have "significant management skills ... strong communications skills [and] an outstanding record of leadership and achievement" to replace outgoing Athletic Director William J. Cleary, Jr. '56.

Jack P. Reardon '60, the executive director of the Alumni Association and the man who Cleary succeeded as Athletic Director in 1990, will chair a search committee composed of University administrators, Faculty members.

No coaches or other current administrators of the Athletic Department will serve on the committee.

Joining Reardon on the search committee is Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman '67, Professor John E. Dowling '57, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67, former University Provost Jerry R. Green, Professor Barbara Gross, Associate Dean of the Faculty Nancy L. Maull, and Joseph O'Donnell.

None of the search committee members have any recent experience in working within the Athletic Department, though Dowling, Green, and Gross have prior experience on the Faculty Committee on Undergradute Athletics and Fitzsimmons is a former goalkeeper for the hockey team.

"I don't know exactly how search committees have been set up in the past, but what was most important this time was to be open to all the thoughts and ideas of the [Athletic] Department" Reardon said.

Reardon and members of the search committee recently met with 35 staffers of the Athletic Department in an open forum to air suggestions and ideas regarding the search.

Reardon said such meetings will continue throughout the spring.

Few coaches or Athletic Department adminisrators have grumbled about their exclusion from the search committee, and some have even given the committee high marks.

"[The search committee] includes people who have had long histories with both the University and the department," says women's soccer Coach Tim Wheaton.

"When they're hiring a person who's going to be your boss, you're concerned with who they are going to be. I feel confident that the search will take coaches' interest into account and that they'll do a good job," he added.

Reardon said the committee might be forced to work beyond the original time schedule he had hoped to meet. The application deadline is March 5.

"I'd love for [the search] to take only four months, but I'm not sure that's possible," Reardon said. "It's more time-intensive than I originally thought."

Reardon even hinted that Cleary's targeted departure date at the end of June may have to be postponed until the next athletic director has been selected.

"Bill better not be moving too far away," Reardon quipped.

Cleary, who has been Harvard's sixth Director of Athletics since February 14, 1990, celebrates today his eleventh anniversary as the department's head.

A member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and a gold medal-winning Olympian, Cleary was the men's hockey coach before his appointment as athletic director. In 1989, he led the Crimson to a 31-3 record en route to what remains Harvard's first and only national championship in men's hockey.

Cleary could not be reached for comment yesterday.