Thomas E. Crooks '49, Master of Dudley House, announced his resignation as of June 30, 1972, in a letter to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences yesterday.

Crooks, who is also Director of the Harvard Summer School, said in the letter. "Both of these jobs are now deserving of more time and ingenuity than is available to one person. The time has come to make a choice and I have chosen, with more reluctance than I am prepared to confess, the more general task of the Summer School and Continuing Education."

"Crooks is head and shoulders above other masters. It has saddened a lot of people to learn that he is resigning," Charles Levering, chairman of the Dudley House Committee, said last night.

One of the more notable events of Crooks' mastership occurred last February when Crooks took time off during the lunch hour to marry his secretary.

Crooks has been Master of Dudley House since July 1, 1963. "When I became Master it was the time of Finley and Perkins. Then people thought becoming Master was being wedded to it, but times have changed," he said yesterday.

"I cannot imagine another position at Harvard which puts one closer to the heart of the college. I shall remember the many students, faculty and staff with whom I have lived through these extraordinary years," Crooks said.