Helen H. Gilbert '36 yesterday became the first woman ever elected president of the Harvard Board of Overseers. Gilbert will begin her term after today's Commencement exercises and serve through June 1976.

Although Gilbert was officially elected at yesterday afternoon's Overseers' meeting, she was chosen as the only candidate for the position by a search committee chaired by outgoing Overseers' President F. Stanton Deland '36.

Gilbert, who is also a member of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, said last night that her election is a symbol of how close Harvard and Radcliffe men and women have become in recent years.

'One Institution'

"We're all of a position now where we're thinking in terms of one institution," she said.

Deland, who has served as president for three years, said last night that the Overseers have recently become more closely aware and involved with day to day happenings in Cambridge.

"Certainly President Bok has cooperated with the president of the Overseers more than any of his predecessors ever dreamed of doing," Deland said.

Gilbert was chairman of the Trustees for over 20 years before stepping down in 1972 and was acting president of Radcliffe in 1964-65 when President Mary I. Bunting took a leave of absence to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1970 Gilbert became the first woman Harvard Overseer. This year, Gilbert has chaired the Overseers' Visiting Committee on the Harvard Radcliffe Relationship.

Gilbert was mentioned this spring as a possible candidate to replace retiring Fellow Albert I. Nickerson '33 on the Harvard Corporation.

The new Overseers to be announced this morning are: Brent M. Abel '37, William T. Coleman, John C. Culver '54, Colman M. Mockler Jr. '52 and Walter N. Rothschild Jr. '42.