In general, Mrs. Marks is typical of most personal secretaries. However, most personal secretaries have not appeared in Glamour magazine modeling suede suits priced at $160. Mrs. Marks has, in the February edition.
Miss Hill of the Personnel Office was partially responsible. She was contacted by the magazine about a feature on the single girl in Boston and asked to round up photogenic Harvard secretaries. Mrs. Marks and Marie Morneault, a secretary in Widener, were selected. Mrs. Marks' wedding ring is artfully concealed behind a pair of white gloves in the photograph. She didn't get to keep the suit.
The recruiting pamphlet, "Harvard Offers More," stressed the individuality of Harvard's secretaries and the responsibilities they carry. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Houses.
Alice Methfessel, Kirkland House's secretary, describes her job as handling "all the stuff about money, parties, dances, stuff like that."
Miss Methfessel came to Harvard in Sept., 1964. She worked in the graduate department of Economics, mostly for Arthur Smithies, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy.
When the opening came at Kirkland House in March, she accepted, but only because Smithies was going to take over as Master in the Fall. (Smithies says he insisted on it).
Since then, she's painted her style on the House, quite literally. Upon her arrival she asked to have her office painted blue, her favorite color. There are reports that Buildings and Grounds tried during the summer to ascertain whether Miss Methessel was getting married soon, so that it wouldn't have to repaint the office. The office is now blue.
One of Miss Methfessel's problems is the yearly shift in housing. Leverett House, with the Towers, has solved that problem for its secretary, Sally Rusher, with a lottery that decides room assignments.
But Mrs. Rusher is still faced with the same monies, parties, and dances that confront Miss Methfessel. More important, both Mrs. Rusher and Miss Methfessel serve as the "faces" of their Houses for freshmen and other visitors. They can solve minor problems of administration that the Masters needn't bother with.
Mrs. Rusher originally came to the area to join the Skating Club of Boston. In 1963, she placed third in the Silver Skates Championship now she confines her ice activities in judging.
Richard T. Gill '48, Master of Leverett House, views Mrs. Rusher almost unqualified praise. It seems that Mrs. Rusher is also responsible for the menus at House dinners. "Every once in a while I have to say 'not artichokes again'" Gill says. "Every House secretary seems a favorite food."
And every professor, department, and House seems to have its favorite kind of secretary. The four kinds of secretary that Miss Hill outlined fill all kinds of jobs in the University. None of them, not even mainstays like Mrs. Robinson, really runs the University, but the University not run without them. Only they can chart Harvard's course on its sea of paper work. So if the MBTA strike ever does come off, give a lift to that secretary.