In 1971, when President Bok moved into Massachusetts Hall, a reporter asked him how long he thought the Bok Era would prove to be.

"Not as long as those of some of my predecessors," replied Bok, explaining then that sometime in the 1980s he wanted to return to the professorship he still holds at the Law School.

Now as the 54-year-old Bok approaches his 14th year overseeing the University's 10 schools, numerous departments and $586.9 million budget, there is private talk of his stepping down from the presidency sometime after Harvard throws its huge 350th birthday party in 1986.

Bok, though, refuses to say whether his 1971 predictions still hold true. "Oh, The Crimson is always asking me when I'm going to retire," laughed Bok in a recent interview. "Well, I consider that a private matter, and I assure you that if I decide to retire, [The Crimson] will be one of the first to find out."

And no one else around Massachusetts Hall is ready to comment for the record on Bok's intentions. "I hope [he'll be around for] a long time," says senior Corporation member Hugh Calkins '45, who joined the seven-man governing body in 1968. But how long does Bok hope to be around? "I have no comment on that," Calkins quickly responds.

Nathan M. Pusey '28, whom Bok replaced on July 1, 1971, served as president for 17 years. The man Pusey took over from, James B. Conant '14, was in power for 21 years.

Usually, though, running a university is not the kind of job anyone keeps for more than about a decade. "I think the average lifetime of a university president is about five years," says Brandeis chemistry professor Saul G. Cohen, one of 30 members of Harvard's Board of Overseers, which would give routine approval to the selection of any Bok replacement. "It's a pretty terrible job, although I think Harvard is probably one of the more pleasant places."

Both Pusey and Conant went on to other careers after their lengthy tenures Pusey serving as head of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York City and Conant as High Commissioner to Germany.

Possible positions mentioned for Bok have included an ambassadorship to Sweden, home of his wife Sissela. Bok of course declines comment.

It is not the first time Bok has been mentioned for a government position. In 1973, William Loeb, publisher of the feverishly conservative Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader recommended that Bok be appointed special Watergate prosecutor. "Bok is probably a Democrat, if not an independent," wrote Loeb, who often has used the front page of his morning paper for jibes against liberal Harvard types.

"On the basis of personal experience [though] I can say this is one if the few men that in my lifetime as a hardboiled newspaperman I have run across who has absolute integrity," Loeb wrote. Coincidentally, Bok had in 1962 been appointed by a court to determine the damages to be paid by the Union Leader in a messy anti-trust case, and Loeb did not forget the young law professor's favorable decision.

With the talk of Bok's departure, there are also rumors of successors. Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky, who stepped down June 30 as dean of the Faculty, is considered a top contender by one New York-based education writer.

The writer, who asked not to be named, notes that Rosovsky publicly leaked in 1978 that he had rejected the presidency of Yale, "and nobody does that unless he's got his eye on something better. Rosovsky certainly has politicked for the position."

His construction of the nationally acclaimed Core Curriculum particularly weighs in his favor, the writer says, as does his extensive pavement-pounding for the Harvard Campaign.

Last week, for instance, Director of Development Thomas M. Reardon announced a new $5 million gift for which Rosovsky was largely responsible.