Yet probably the most sought after invitation in town will be to the dinner Bok plans to throw for Prince Charles, heir to the throne of Britain. Now that President Reagan has declined to attend the celebration, Charles will clearly be the most spectacular participant.

The Prince of Wales will address the first of three convocations about Harvard. His speech will be on the roots of Harvard, which Stephenson says the Prince is qualified to speak on because he went to Cambridge, where many of Harvard's founders were educated.

The Saturday night finale promises to be equally spectacular. "It's the appropriate capper to a week of serious and heavy work," Walker says of his finale to the birthday celebration.

"I want the show to express the spirit of Harvard without getting corny," he explains.

"While 84 pianos may have been appropriate at the Olympics, they are not right for Harvard," he explains. Thus Walker has hired the Boston Pops to provide most of the music for the event because that is an orchestra "which even the people of Boston can enjoy."

Narrating the Saturday night affair will be former CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite. Surrounded by pictures of the eight Harvard graduates who signed the Declaration of Independence and laser images of sites in the Boston area, Cronkite will tell the fantastic story of Harvard's rise from a provincial university to one of the most prominent institutions of higher education in the world.

Woven into Cronkite's scrip will be bursts of fireworks, and descriptions of Harvard student life by author George Plimpton '54, who is also a fireworks expert.

Adding to the dignified air which Walker says is needed for a Harvard event, will be readings of the works of Harvard graduates--including Ralph Waldo Emerson (Class of 1821) and Henry David Thoureau (Class of 1837).

Harvard undergraduates won't be left out of the festivities. Walker has slated various student musical groups to perform. "I wanted to bring in as many Harvard people as possible," Walker explains. "I am not so presumptuous as to think I could absorb everything that makes up a Harvard person."

Veritas

The spirit of Harvard will be in the air from the very first day when the birthday celebration begins with a River Festival on the Charles. This event is supposed to be Harvard's party for the whole community, explains organizer Clara Wainwright.

In order to generate enthusiasm for the event, a life-size marionette of John Harvard will travel to various community events and shake hands with children of all ages, Wainwright says.

In addition, a poster designed for the event by a fourth grader from Cambridge's Tobin elementary school will soon start going up in Allston and Cambridge, Wainwright says.

Originally, a big birthday cake was to float down the Charles, but Wainwright says the cake would have been scalped by the low bridges over the river. After discovering they couldn't have their cake and eat it too, Harvard changed the program to feature musicians and jugglers from the Boston area performing on stationary barges tied to both ends of the Charles.

Also linking the two banks from Weeks Bridge to Eliot House will be a gigantic rainbow-like sculpture, designed by an MIT professor of advanced environmental design. In addition a water screen will shoot up toward Weeks Bridge on which aquatic laser images will be projected.