Cecil A. Roberts will retire as director of Buildings and Grounds and of the Planning Office at the end of June, after 44 years of work for Harvard. William Murphy, the present deputy director will take his position.

Murphy said that the change will not mean any new policy for Building and Grounds.

While at Harvard, Roberts supervised the building of Leverett towers, Peabody Terrace, Holyoke Center, William James Hall, and the Cambridge Street Underpass.

Murphy joined the Harvard staff in 1964. He holds degrees in engineering from Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University.

Buildings and Grounds is responsible for coordinating and carrying out Harvard's construction program and for directing the maintenance and operation of the more than 300 buildings that the University owns. It also supervises University Police and the Planning Office.

Murphy said Buildings and Grounds is currently trying hard to make the grass grow in the Yard again. He said the salt that was ground into the soil during the big snow storms and the strikers who stood on the ground at the beginning of the spring almost ruined the grass completely.