Former Dean of Freshmen Dies at 68

Former Associate Dean of Freshmen William Clinton Burriss Young ’55 died of a long-term illness last Tuesday morning at the age of 68.

Young worked at Harvard for 35 years as a proctor, assistant dean and associate dean in the Freshmen Dean’s Office (FDO).

Young was one of the most well known figures on campus until his retirement in 1998, a fixture of the Yard usually seen with his aging tweed overcoat and dog Tizzy.

“He was a man of broad learning and boundless intellectual curiosity, of impeccable integrity, of impish wit and gently clever pen,” Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley “Ibby” Nathans said in an email message.

“All in the FDO—both deans and staff and those of our proctors who knewhim best—have been deeply saddened by Dean Young’s illness and death,” she continued.

Young graduated from the College with a degree in Fine Arts, and after recieving a masters degree went on to teach at Brown University. He also taught English at St. Paul’s, his alma mater, for five years in the late 1950’s.

Young’s Massachusetts Hall A-31 home was known as a haven for the dorm’s residents (handpicked by Young to live in the dorm), seeking help adjusting to College life or just looking for a place to relax.

Young was the last administrator removed from his FDO office in University Hall when students occupied the building in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War.

Young watched from his Mass. Hall room the next morning as police stormed the building, using tear gas and billy clubs against students.

“Something very young and hopeful went away that dawn,” he wrote in the Class of 1955’s 25th Anniversary Report, “and I watched it go from my window. For the next few years, the national malaise was locked in the Yard.”

Young was also the last person to claim an encounter with the ghost of Mass. Hall—Holbrook Smith.

According to myth, Smith claimed to be a member of the class of 1914, although no such alumnus actually existed.

Legend has it Smith would occasionally chat with residents of Mass. Hall’s B-entryway at the beginning of each term.

The ghost was a “tall, respectable-looking, older gentleman,” Young told Harvard Magazine, and said Smith was normal in every way, except that he never seemed to open or close any doors when entering or leaving the dorm.

Forced to ask Smith to leave after student complaints, Young said the ghost looked at him with “the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. He said, ‘You’ve ruined a perfectly good thing.’” Smith then walked down the stairs and was never seen again, Young said.

In 1972 Young was appointed Associate Dean of Freshmen. One of his many projects was to produce the first chronological list of all of the occupants that had occupied each Yard room since they were built.

“He was among the last of a certain breed of resident deans who worked here for a lifetime,” said Assistant Dean of Freshmen Philip A. Bean. “For the most part, he is representative of a different Harvard.”

In 1998 Young retired but still came into the FDO daily as a volunteer consultant until he fell ill this past fall.

At his retirement party in the spring of 1998 nearly 700 people from as far away as Hong Kong and New Delhi filled Annenberg.