Arthur D. Trottenberg '48, Assistant Dean for Resources and Planning, will leave Harvard this summer after twenty years as an administrator to become an executive of the Ford Foundation.

McGeorge Bundy, former Dean of the Faculty and now president of the Ford Foundation, will announce Trottenberg's appointment as administrative vice-president of the Foundation in New York today. Trottenberg will succeed Verne S. Atwater, who resigned early this month, on July 1.

"It's a large and exacting job," Trottenberg said last night, "and of course I'm looking forward to it." He said his new job will include managing "the administration and logistics of Foundation services," as well as undertaking special projects from time to time.

Dean Ford, who will appoint Trottenberg's successor at Harvard, was not available last night to say when the appointment might be made. However, there has been growing speculation in the last month that Ford may divide the functions Trottenberg handled and appoint two new Assistant Deans.

Since he became Assistant Dean in 1961, Trottenberg's activities have proliferated from the original control of the College's planning and development into many other administrative areas. One administrator credited Trottenberg last night with playing a large role in the development of visual and environmental studies at Harvard, and in improving research-project administration here.

Trottenberg declined to speculate last night whether these powers might be split into two jobs, saying that Dean Ford "will want to make any announcements himself."

Immediately after graduating in 1948, Trottenberg joined the administration as an assistant to the Vice-President. He also served as administrative vice-president of Radcliffe from 1960 to 1965.