David Riesman '31, Ford II Professor of Social Sciences yesterday delivered the final lecture to his trend-setting Social Sciences 136, "Character and Social Structure in America," which 17 years ago was the first course in Harvard's history not to require a final exam.

"I had to stop sometime," the 66-year-old Riesman said yesterday, explaining why he will no longer teach what he has termed an "Incredibly pleasurable and rewarding course."

Riesman will go into partial retirement next year, teaching a junior tutorial in sociology and a course at the Graduate School of Education.

Grade Conscious

"In these days when every student is grade conscious," Riesman said, "a course with no final exam--where there is no certainty of a high grade--the students would tend to take a course seriously. A few students have failed, to their astonishment."

The course requires one extensive term paper, weekly reading, and attendance at weekly sections.

The value in having students pay attention to the material without distraction, Riesun said, was his motivation in offering a course with no final exam. "But since every course at Harvard competes with every other course for a student's attention, we had to establish a special esprit de corps."

This esprit de corps would create an atmosphere in which everyone would participate in group discussions, rather than a few "usually male" students and the section leader, he said.

Richard M. Hunt, associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and head section leader, said yesterday the course was representative of a "unique collegial tradition" in which there was outstanding spirit and rapport between students and section leaders.

The course's attraction to people from every generation and occupation --from housewives to Nieman fellows--made the course an extraordinarily enriching experience for all those involved, Hunt added.

Hunt said that although the course tended to attract those who don't like to take finals, the lack of a final also scared some away. He said that most students did the reading regularly, and that attendance at lectures had been steady.

Riesman said that the greatest fear of the faculty, in agreeing to permit him to offer a course without a final, was that the mandatory papers would be plagiarized from papers students had written for other courses. In the seventeen years he taught the course, Riesman said he had seen only one or two instances of the offense.

"We're glad if a student does this and tells us," Riesman said, "but if a student does this and does not inform us ahead of time, I'm in favor of severe action--expulsion."