Members of the Corporation have tended to be lawyers and businessmen, less well-known than many of the Overseers. Of the present Corporation, few students could identify its members beside Conant and Cabot.
Unknown to Students
Henry L. Shattuck '01, a Boston lawyer, was on the Corporation from 1929 to 1939 as Treasurer of the College. Following his resignation from that position, he was elected a Fellow of the Corporation.
Dr. Roger I. Lee '02 was Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene from 1920 to 1924 and served briefly as acting Dean of the School of Public Health. He was named to the Corporation in 1931 following a year on the Board of Overseers.
Grenville Clark '03, also a Fellow since 1931, was until his retirement in 1946 a New York lawyer in the firm established by the late Secretary of State Elihu Root. Clark worked extensively on the writing of the draft laws for World War II.
Charles A. Coolidge '17, a Boston attorney, was selected for the Corporation in 1935 after a term on the Board of Overseers. He is the son of a founder of the architectural afirm of Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, and Abbot, which has designed much of modern Harvard, including the Houses, Memorial Church, the Indoor Athletic Building, and Lamont Library.
William L. Marbury, Jr., the newest member of the Corporation, was named in 1948. His appointment marked a departure from custom as he never attended Harvard College, obtaining his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia and then coming to Cambridge to go to Law School. Marbury's appointment was interpreted as a recognition, by the administration, of the graduate schools, whose enrollment is about as large as the College's. Although Marbury was the first non-College man on the Corporation in generations, there had been a few others in the past including one or two professors.
The professional activities of Fellows have tended for some time to get little publicity, but Marbury attracted some attention recently as Alger Hiss' personal lawyer in the early days of his controversy with Whittaker Chambers.
Philosophy Professor Alfred North Whitehead once described the Corporation as "a government by seven cousins," because for two centuries a few Boston families regularly have had representatives among the Fellows. Even today the Corporation has three representatives from Beacon Hill, but it also has Clark from New York and Marbury from Baltimore.
No Pay Given
Corporation members have always been Protestants with the notable exception of James Byrne '77, a Fellow from 1920 to 1926. Byrne, a Catholic from New York, met some opposition at the time of his appointment on religious grounds. It also surprised some that--with Boston's Catholic population--Harvard's only Catholic Fellow should come from New York.
No pay is given members of the Corporation, although the President and Treasurer receive salaries for their University positions. Fellows, though usually men of means, have not been noted for their gifts to the University as many Overseers have. Exceptions have been persons like Byrne who endowed a chair at the Law School, but few of the University's largest benefactors have served as Fellows.
Harvard men have always considered it a high honor to serve the University and have held onto their life-time positions. Since 1900 only 25 men have held the seven positions on the Corporation. Henry Pickering Walcott '58 served as a Fellow for 37 years until 1927, when failing eyesight forced him to retire at the age of 88.
After 300 years the ways of the Corporation are pretty well set. Indications are that President and Fellows will continue to meet privately on the first and third Monday of each month in their Massachusetts Hall office for decades to come.
The mood and opinions of the students and faculty may vary considerably with the times, and there may be lond outcries for extensive changes around the University. Before anything can occur, that little group of unknown men, the Corporation, will have to be consulted. It is likely that the President and Fellows will continue to move slowly--very slowly.