Lewis Aims To Appoint New Masters by March

With an old search in Winthrop stalled and a new one in Currier set off by a resignation announcement last week, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 hopes to have picked two new House masters by spring break, according to Currier House Senior Tutor Carole A.S. Mandryk.

“They’re hoping to have the [results of the] two searches be announced around the same time,” Mandryk said. “Lewis hopes to make the offers and get responses soon enough to be able to announce the new masters before spring break.”

This would leave time, Mandryk added, for the new masters to get involved in their Houses this year.

Lewis met with Currier administrators and tutors last Thursday to discuss the process for the search to replace Master William A. Graham, who announced last week that he will be leaving Currier’s mastership at the end of the school year.

To announce a new master by March, the Currier search will have to move faster than the effort in Winthrop House, which began with Master Paul D. Hanson’s September announcement that he would be stepping down.

The committee of students and tutors in Winthrop charged with interviewing candidates and advising Lewis on the selection has only interviewed one candidate so far—David A. Hafler, Breakstone professor of neurology and a Winthrop House associate—and does not plan to meet again until after intersession.

Winthrop House Senior Tutor Courtney B. Lamberth said the apparent suicide of House resident Marian H. Smith ’04 last month was the reason for the delay.

“We postponed some meetings with candidates in the wake of Marian Smith’s death, as we needed to focus on grieving and healing,” Lamberth wrote in an e-mail. “And then I didn’t think it appropriate to have meetings interfere with exams and papers. We will pick up where we left off as soon as exams are over.”

David C. Reed ’05, a member of the Winthrop search committee, said he is “pretty sure” the process will now extend past the date originally planned.

Like the Winthrop search, the Currier search kicked off with Lewis and Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67 meeting with students in the House to solicit their input. But while administrators waited three weeks after Hanson’s announcement to meet with Winthrop students, they wasted no time in Currier, holding their meeting in the House last Thursday—just two days after Graham announced his resignation.

Mandryk is assembling a search committee for Currier House that she hopes will be ready to hold its first meeting this week, she said.

She added that she expects Senior Common Room members, tutors and undergraduates to all be involved in the selection process.

The Currier search will be simplified by the fact that Winthrop has already done the work of trimming a very long list of professors—close to 100—thought earlier this year to be potential candidates for the mastership, she said.

As in past searches, the list will be condensed into a group of candidates to be interviewed by the search committee.

“We’ll meet with everyone and we’ll give Dean Lewis our thoughts and our impressions,” Mandryk said.

Lewis declined to comment for this story.

—Staff writer Emily M. Anderson can be reached at emanders@fas.harvard.edu.