"Bob Stone is the world's finest fundraiser. He is, without doubt, the best there is, When you talk about the sheik of somewhere who might have an interest [in giving money to Harvard], his eyes light up and he's off taking the next plane. He's indefatigable; he has absolutely no hesitation to say to people. 'I'm sorry--that's not enough."'

So says Hugh Calkins '45, a 16-year veteran of the Harvard Corporation, of Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, one of three national co-chairmen of the $350 million Harvard Campaign.

By everyone's admission--including the two other national co-chairmen, Albert H. Gordon '23 and Walter N. Rothschild '42--Stone was the campaign's Big Gun and a major reason why the five-year drive hit its goal.

"Walter and I did our part, sure, but Bob was really the boy who kept the thing going," says Gordon, chairman of Kidder, Peabody and contributer of $2 million for the indoor track and tennis center that bears his name.

"A person who was the key to the success of the whole thing was Bob Stone," agrees Fred L. Glimp '50, vice president for alumni affairs and development, who calls him "energetic and tireless. He's got to be the best volunteer leader any university has ever had for any fund drive."

And, adds President Bok to the harmonious chorus. "He's provided marvelous leadership. He's the most successful and dedicated lay leader of a fund anyone's ever heard of."

Medest

But Stone is more humble about his highly-touted panhandling skills, which he has been honing since he became co-class agent for the Harvard College fund in 1953. "I guess I was just the sucker who got tapped," says Stone, the resident fundraising whiz of the seven-man governing Corporation. "I'm the only [Corporation member] with a really strong business background, and that's why I'm interested in the money matters like the campaign and the endowment."

As co-chairman, Stone has helped oversee a volunteer army of some 5000 alumni that has solicited more than 57,000 donations.

And as one of 27 benefactors who set up a $25 million 'challenge fund' last January to boost the Campaign to its $350 million goal, the shipping executive has also pledged more than $1 million of his own money to the University.

In pushing the cause of the challenge fund, which offered to match every $2 of new or increased donations in the final year with another $1, Stone said. "I myself started out five years ago making a campaign pledge that I thought was about the best I could do. I have increased that commitment twice since then, and am now a little surprised to find that it is three times the original figure. What I have done," Stone told alumni, "is a good indication of my own belief in the importance of what we are all doing for Harvard."

Originally from posh, suburban Brookline, Mass., Stone came to Harvard, Kirkland House and the Owl Club from Milton Academy. Since graduating with a degree in economics, Stone has hit it big in the shipping industry. He is currently head of New York-based West India Shipping Inc., and before that ran States Marine Lines, which owns and operates a fleet of cargo ships.

Stone says fundraising is his biggest hobby, because he feels it is essential to preserve the basic functions of the University: teaching and research. "You have to get at those basic issues," says Stone, "and that takes money."