Word: conant
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Last week I was given a brown manila envelope that had been entrusted to the University Archives in 1951 by James B. Conant, Harvard’s 23rd president. He left instructions that it should be opened by the Harvard president at the outset of the next century “and not before.” I broke the seal on this mysterious package to find a remarkable letter from my predecessor. It was addressed to “My dear Sir.” Conant wrote with a sense of imminent danger. He feared an impending World...
...wonder,” he continued, “how the free world is going to get through the next fifty years.” But as he imagined Harvard’s future, Conant shifted from foreboding to faith. If the “prophets of doom” proved wrong, if there was a Harvard president alive to read his letter, Conant was confident about what the university would be. “You will receive this note and be in charge of a more prosperous and significant institution than the one over which I have the honor...
...Perhaps most telling was an anecdote Faust used to close her speech. She read from a recently unearthed letter from former Harvard president James B. Conant ’14 written 50 years ago and marked for the University President at the outset of the 21st century "and not before...
...addressed to 'My dear Sir,'" Faust said, causing the audience to erupt into laughter and applause. "Conant wrote with a sense of imminent danger. He feared an impending World War III that would make, as he put it, 'the destruction of our cities including Cambridge quite possible...
...while Conant, according to Faust, expressed confidence that Harvard would uphold the same core values if it continued to exist, Faust cited "a widespread lack of understanding and agreement about what universities ought to do and be," arguing that the institutions are "at once celebrated and assailed...