Harvard's 25th

Spotting the man who would succeed frosty old Dr. Abbott Lawrence Lowell as Harvard's president has been a game almost as popular as "Murder." It began a, year and a half ago with the appointment of Dr. Kenneth Ballard Murdock, 36, as Harvard's dean of Arts & Sciences (TIME, Sept. 28; Oct. 12, 1931). The Boston Globe scored a "beat" on the appointment, began at once reporting that Dean Murdock was being groomed for the presidency. Later other candidates were discussed over Boston tea tables, but Dean Murdock seemed to be ahead--until last week, Then the alert Globe reported a dark horse and scored another "beat." The Globe reported, the Harvard Corporation nominated, and the Harvard Overseers were sure to accept, James Bryant ("Jim") Conant, 40, as Harvard's 25th president. The choice reflected a decision in favor of oldtime. hard-driving intellect over new style business efficiency. James Conant is one of his country's foremost organic chemists. Born in Dorchester, Mass., son of an able wood-engraver, he took his Harvard A. B. (Class of 1914) in three years, magna cum laude. While taking his Ph. D. he was a teaching fellow. During the War he worked on gases, became a major in the Chemical Warfare Service. Then he returned to Harvard and, because the university feared losing him to another college, Dr. Conant was made assistant professor six years after taking his A. B. In six years more he became a full professor. His most famed work has been in chlorophyll, the green stuff of life in plants. Last year Columbia University gave Dr. Conant its Chandler Medal, the American Chemical Society (New York section) its William H. Nichols Medal. Dr. Conant is rated a stern taskmaster --and admired for it--by his ablest students. Chemistry is his whole life. Yet he is no absent-minded professor: decade ago he leaped into the Charles River to save a would-be suicide. His wife, mother of his two children, is Grace Thayer Richards, daughter of the late Chemist Theodore W. Richards who won a Nobel Prize in 1916. The Conants live hard by the Harvard Chemical Laboratories. In an alumni record Dr. Conant used up one-third of his brief space by writing: "The present academic year (1928-29) has been one of good fortune for all the members of the Harvard chemistry department since we have at last quitted the prehistoric Boylston Hall and moved into our splendid new quarters in the Mallinckrodt and Converse Laboratories." Three of Harvard's last four presidents were of old New England lineage. For 64 years, under the late great Charles William Eliot (who in his early years was a mathematics and chemistry professor) and under Dr. Lowell, Harvard's presidency was of the very best Boston blue blood. Many a Boston socialite assumed that the aristocratic succession would continue. But the Harvard Corporation was conscious of the "unavailability" of some other candidates and of Dr. Conant's fitting neatly in the Eliot-Lowell intellectual tradition. No appanage of Boston alone. Harvard is the richest university in the U. S. ($117,204,250 endowment) and now has about all it needs in fine buildings and new houses. Harvard under Dr. Conant may keep its mind on lofty things, moving in the direction spry old Dr. Lowell indicated when, as one of his last presidential acts, he founded a Society of Fellows for super-scholarly young postgraduates. Dr. Conant was to have sailed this week for a vacation in Europe. A mastoid operation on one of his sons last week may delay his holiday. But his plans fit in with those of Harvard--to keep Dr. Lowell in the centre of the stage next month at his 25th and last commencement.

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