Both in September and as late as three weeks ago, Derek Bok strongly denied any interest in the Harvard presidency, talking quite freely about his reservations.

Speaking informally in both interviews, Bok stressed that no one on the Corporation had approached him, and, as if to quash the persistent rumors that he was a leading candidate, argued quite convincingly that he neither wanted nor would be offered the job.

At one point, he said, the speculation so irritated him that he was tempted to say publicly that he was not interested. However, he added, that struck him as presumptuous and "in the case of one's own institution, one feels a different obligation."

Different Mood

But in an interview yesterday, he appeared to be in a very different mood. While refusing to comment on published reports that he is the new President, Bok did not flatly deny the suggestion, as he had done in both previous interviews.

Instead, he parried questions almost playfully and stressed that, as far as he knew, no final vote had been taken on the nominee. With his lawyer's guile, however, he successfully eluded any declarative response with his characteristic conditional, run-on sentences.

Derek Bok, who is 40, has in two-and-a-half years as dean of the Harvard Law School gained a remarkable degree of admiration from a very critical group of students and faculty.

Into the '70's

As the successor to Erwin N. Griswold, now U.S. Solicitor General, he managed to usher the Law School into the '70's with a minimum of bruises and an impressive list of accomplishments.

He weathered two very harrowing confrontations with Law students on issues of grade reform and disciplinary policy, oversaw a $15 million fund-raising campaign, and held together an increasingly torn faculty.

Lloyd Weinreb, a professor at the Law School and a close friend of Bok's, said last night that he has done a "remarkable job over the last couple of years."

A vigorous, athletic man, he is unfailingly friendly and courteous, and, unlike his administrative counterparts in the College, relatively close to students.

Even the small numbers of radical students who have tangled with Bok in two controversies generally like him, even if they do become enraged over what they consider his tendency to blur issues and "waffle" on decisions.

He is what they call a "good liberal" who has consistently been unusually sensitive to racial issues-especially in the University's construction policies and strongly opposed to the Vietnam war.

While not as politically active as some professors, Bok did play a leading role in the anti-Carswell fight last winter, even travelling to Washington to speak with Senators.

PROFILE

Bok is the son of a late justice of the Supreme Court of Pennesylvania and a member of the Curtis family, owners of the Curtis Publishing Co.

He graduated from Stanford in 1951 where he played varsity basketball and from the Law School in 1954 where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review.