Willett said that Rudenstine expressed no concern at the unusual arrangement and suggested that the pair serve jointly from his first contact with each.
Both said that they believed that Murphy, who originally introduced the “out of the box” idea that both serve as academic dean, was instrumental in suggesting to Mass. Hall that the pair jointly serve as dean this year.
Murphy, who served as dean of GSE for nine years, will officially leave his post at the end of the day tomorrow. His tenure saw the school’s first capital campaign, which brought in $111 million to the school and allowed it to increase its number of endowed professorships from 8 to 24.
Rudenstine, whose tenure as a Harvard’s president will likewise end tomorrow, chose last fall not to conduct a search for a new dean himself but to leave the task to his successor.
—Staff Writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.