At Unveiling, Pomp and Pageantry Greet Rudenstine

Greeted by Mozart, crab cakes, and $30 bottles of champagne, a who’s who of Harvard filled the Faculty Room in University Hall yesterday for the unveiling of the official portrait of former University President Neil L. Rudenstine.

Appearing amid the pomp and pageantry were some of Harvard’s most low-profile leaders, including incoming Interim President Derek C. Bok and three members of the secretive Harvard Corporation, the University’s top governing body.

Before the portrait was revealed, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes, reading from a single pink Post-It note, delivered one punch line after another as he toasted Rudenstine.

“There is one satisfactory reason to be present at the unveiling of your own portrait,” Gomes said. “You will now see what you will look like after you are gone.”

Rudenstine, who led Harvard from 1991 to 2001, broke from his prepared remarks when he addressed the crowd of about 200. He lauded the Faculty as “fertile, inventive, and innovative.”

“When you come right down to it and if you stand and ask this Faculty to do something and they believe it is in the best of interests of Harvard...they will do it, they really will do it,” said Rudenstine, who sported silver cufflinks and a red-and-black checkered tie.

The former president spoke in the same ornate hall in which, three months ago, the drawn-out battle between outgoing University President Lawrence H. Summers and the Faculty came to a head. The long shadow of that imbroglio was in subtle evidence at the ceremony.

Before pulling the drape off the portrait, which will join the paintings of Harvard presidents and benefactors hanging in the Faculty Room, Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby called on professors to “let Neil Rudenstine’s portrait speak to us.”

“Let us remember Neil’s example as a listener, as we argue with each other here during Faculty meetings,” he said.

Rudenstine’s portraitist, Everett Raymond Kinstler of New York City, also attended the ceremony. Kinstler has painted over 1,200 portraits, including paintings of five U.S. presidents and the Treasury Department’s portrait of Summers, according to the painter’s website.

The portrait unveiled yesterday is more than four feet tall and depicts a vibrant-looking Rudenstine wearing a bright red robe—in contrast with the mostly subdued colors of the paintings that line the walls of the Faculty Room.

“He did exactly what I hoped: no black background, no black robe,” Rudenstine said after his speech.

LOOMING DECISIONS

Rudenstine said in a brief interview that he would not advise the presidential search committee, even informally, as it vets candidates over the coming months.

“It’s not appropriate,” he said.

The unveiling ceremony was a rare public appearance for members of the Corporation, which, along with three members of the Board of Overseers, will choose Harvard’s next president.

Fellows James R. Houghton ’58, Nannerl O. Keohane, and Robert D. Reischauer ’63 accompanied Bok to University Hall after a Corporation meeting in Loeb House yesterday afternoon. The other three fellows, Patricia A. King, Robert E. Rubin ’60, and James F. Rothenberg ’68, did not attend the ceremony. King and Rubin boarded waiting black Town Cars on Quincy Street after leaving Loeb House. It was the first day on the job for King, who was elected to the Corporation in December and formally began her term yesterday.

At yesterday’s reception, both Houghton and Keohane said that the presidential search is still in its initial stages.

“We’re just getting started,” said Houghton, the Corporation’s senior fellow.

Amid the upbeat mood of the afternoon, Bok joked about one of the most pressing issues facing him. When asked about his ongoing search for someone to fill Kirby’s shoes when the dean steps down in June, Bok responded, “Was I supposed to do that?”

—Carlton E. Forbes contributed to the reporting of this story. —Staff writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Anton S. Troianovski can be reached at atroian@fas.harvard.edu.