"Symbolically, it was a good presidency," Robert D. Putnam, professor of Government, said yesterday. "But relatively little was accomplished."

JFK was a "very charismatic president [who] wanted to do new things but who still really couldn't get it going," said Bradford A. Lee, assistant professor of History.

Charles S. Maier, professor of History, said that Kennedy "had great potential but little substantial legacy."

And Raymond Vernon, Dillon Professors of International Affairs, said JFK "accomplished great things of spirit but little of substance."

A few of those professors interviewed yesterday had at least a few kind words for Kennedy, who as an undergraduate here lived in Weld Hall and Winthrop House, played football, was member of the Spec Club, and was a business editor of The Crimson.

"A whole generation found him inspirational," said Stephen Thernstrom, Winthrop Professor of History.

Karl W. Deutsch, Stanfield Professor of International Peace, praised JFK's work as a supporter of civil rights and anti-poverty measures.

JFK's presidency "was the high point of America's public image around the world," Putnam noted. "In Europe it is still seen as [America's] golden age."

Robert Coles, Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities, said that Kennedy "offered a stimulus to the ideas of young people through VISTA, through the Peace Corps, and through the recognition of the needs of the poor. These were symbolic gestures which argued for what he hoped to do in the next six years of office."

Cambridge Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, a 30-year veteran of city polities, was talking yesterday--as he often does--about the times JFK spent with his local constituents.

Vellucci remembered that in 1946, he supported Michael J. Neville, a former Cambridge mayor, in the 11th District race for the House of Representatives seat. But in every election after that, Vellucci said, he counted himself as an ardent Kennedy backer.

Early during his 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy came to Cambridge and Vellucci helped the candidates organize a block party and spaghetti dinner. Kennedy ate his spaghetti and then walked around shaking hands, even climbing to the second floor of a few two-family dwellings.

Down the street, Kennedy walked into a fish store and, as Vellucci tells it, the owner of the store began to wipe his hands on his apron in order to greet the Congressman and presidential aspirant.

But Kennedy supposedly ran over to him and said, "Give me your hands, they are honest hands."

Vellucci's recollections of Kennedy are typical of those held by his peers.