"The Saltonstall family came to America on the first group of ships after the Mayflower, and the family has been at Harvard as long as Harvard has existed," Robert Saltonstall, associate vice president for operations, says.

Nevertheless, Saltonstall broke an 11-generation, family tradition by defecting to Brown.

"I was accepted at Harvard," he explains, adding, however that after a half-day visit to Brown "I felt that that was the place for me, but I didn't get that feeling at Harvard."

Since graduating from Brown in 1957, Saltonstall has never stayed in any one job for long. His long resume includes descriptions of his jobs as a trainee in a Betty Crocker cake mix plant in Buffalo, N.Y., and as the president of a Sailboat manufacturing company.

When Saltonstall landed at Harvard in 1981, he found that his position encompassed almost as many responsibilities as all his previous jobs combined. Currently, Saltonstall supervises the University's Buildings and Grounds Department, construction management, Food Services, the Faculty Club, parking facilities, and Planning Department.

In the short period of time he has been here the tradition-breaking Saltonstall has begun a major reorganization of the previously much-maligned Buildings and Grounds Department (B&G).

"I see my biggest challenge here at Harvard as accomplishing a real change in the level of service of B&G," he says, and already a positive change in the services of the department has been reported by several faculties of the University.

"These meetings have been really cool," says Kathleen A. Montague, assistant manager of the Faculty Club, adding, "They bring us together so we know what kinds of services we can offer each other."

Although his reorganization of B&G has attracted the most attention, Saltonstall divides his time equally between all six departments.

In parking, he works with Robert Burns, manager of the department, to maintain the University's lots in areas ranging from snow clearing to the collection of fees.

Last fall, for example, several faculty members became quite upset when they were unable to park their cars in their assigned Holyoke Center parking lot spaces. Because there were too many cars and too few spaces, Saltonstall and his parking office were called in to solve the problem.

"It needed serious attention and it got it," Saltonstall says, adding, "Where one stands on the parking ladder is a very big status issue for the faculty. In fact, the most difficult part of running the parking department is assigning spaces."

As director of the Construction Management and Planning Departments, he supervises the University's building projects, "which includes handling architectural work, engineering, and contractors," Saltonstall says.

In an innovative move to improve relations among all six of his departments, he held a three day weekend outing for staff members of the divisions. They attended workshops and classes on increasing efficiency and techniques to improve the management of the offices.

"It was a big surprise to find out we really didn't know the people of the other departments or what they did," Montague said.