Illingworth Says He Will Step Down

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71, who handled student group affairs from University Hall for the past four years, announced earlier this month that he has decided to leave Harvard.

Illingworth, who will step down from his post this summer, has worked as a dean and in the Admissions Office for a combined 22 years and is a member of the staff appointed by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

Illingworth’s departure follows the ouster of Lewis in March and a restructuring of the College administration that combines the oversight of academic and extracurricular matters—some say to the detriment of the latter.

Incoming Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 will merge the office of undergraduate education he lead for the last year with Lewis’ when he takes over next week. Gross announced this week the appointment of four associate deans to serve beneath him.

Despite the turbulence in University Hall in recent months, Illingworth called his departure from Cambridge “a personal matter.”

A Maine native who left to attend Harvard College and Divinity School, Illingworth said he has plans to move to his home state’s largest city for family reasons.

“My elderly parents live in Portland and I would like to be closer to them in the years to come,” Illingworth wrote in an e-mail. “I also would like to return to my vocation as a priest in the Episcopal Church and I’m excited about various opportunities for service there.”

Lewis called Illingworth “one of Harvard’s great servants.”

“Dean Illingworth understands Harvard students very well, and has particular expertise in the areas of musical performance and spiritual life,” Lewis wrote. “But he has overseen a complex operation, mostly driven by student initiative, with a consistently supportive and fair hand.”

Lewis added that Illingworth has “grappled sensitively” with difficult dilemmas like balancing students’ right to protest—such as during the April 2001 takeover of Mass. Hall by the Progressive Student Labor Movement—with “preserving the rights of resident students to study and sleep in peace.”

Illingworth, who was known for his consistently cheery demeanor, has also taken on other controversial issues during his deanship.

This past year he drew criticism from some students for his handling of the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship’s constitutional requirement that its leaders profess faithfulness to certain Christian doctrines. Ultimately, the Committee on College Life, which includes both Lewis and Illingworth, decided to allow the provision to stand.

Gross said that he had known “for some time” that Illingworth was considering leaving and that he respects the decision.

Gross wrote in an e-mail that Illingworth “will be hard to replace.” Among the appointments he announced this week was that of Judith Kidd to serve in an expanded version of Illingworth’s post, as an acting associate dean.

Although Illingworth did not say that Lewis’ departure had led to his own, the two are good friends, and many members of Lewis’ staff have expressed unhappiness with the sudden firing of their boss.

Illingworth has said that Lewis’ departure has brought him some sadness and that the reorganization of the College has been a source of uncertainty.

Several administrators have also said they’re concerned that Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby is now working to shift the College’s priorities away from extracurricular activities as he forces out Lewis—a longtime advocate of student life and extracurriculars—and replaces him with someone whose administrative area of expertise had been curricular matters.

In an e-mail, Lewis made a reference to changes at the College.

“Dean Illingworth has a profound respect for and love of Harvard, and believes that what we have received from the past is a valued heritage,” Lewis wrote, “that even as the College must constantly adapt, adjust, and move forward, we have much to learn from those who came before us.”

Illingworth joins Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery ’87 and Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Arlene Becella as close colleagues of Lewis who will depart this summer.

“Harry Lewis was the most important reason I took this job,” Illingworth said in 2000 after his first semester in University Hall. “I wanted to work with him, be in on his thinking, his vision of what this College should be.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.