The choice between MIT and Harvard, though, was tougher. Together with his wife, the future dean boarded a train and made the five day trip to Boston without knowing which of the two schools he would attend.

"MIT had offered us student housing, so we got a cab and he took us all over hell's half-acre and finally ended up at MIT, and we're in front of this army barracks from World War II," he says. "My wife said, 'No way, lose. We're not going to live in that.'"

Resigned to spend at least one night in the converted MIT army barracks, the couple dropped off their baggage and went for an evening stroll along the banks of the Charles River.

They wound up walking all the way to Harvard.

"We got to the footbridge, and the sun was going down over the stadium, and it was so beautiful," he recalls. "We had this image at that point--MIT was this army barracks and Harvard was this beautiful Georgian campus. Pretty much on that footbridge, we decided to come here."

From that day in 1957 on, McArthur remained at Harvard, joining the faculty shortly after his graduation in 1959, and rising through the ranks until he was awarded an endowed chair in 1973.

Six years later, on Halloween day of 1979, then Harvard President Derek C. Bok asked McArthur whether he was interested in becoming dean.

By January 1, 1980, the lucky, hardworking son of a grain inspector had moved into his new office.

Today, halfway through his 13th year as dean, McArthur is at the height of his professional career, far removed from the Vancouver sawmill where he got his start.

Entering the lobby of the Business School's newly renovated Morgan Hall, where the dean has his spacious office, visitors are greeted by a rare 2,000-year-old tile floor mosaic imported from ancient Syria.

Four secretaries occupy McArthur's outer office. Inside, where the dean works at a large conference table, colorful paintings by Alexander Calder brighten the walls.

Leaning back comfortably in an elegant, white, upholstered armchair, McArthur reflects modestly on his accomplishments and his impact on the Business School.

"Deans get plenty of recognition without seeking it," he says. "We've got lots of great people and I work hard with many others to attract more than our fair share...I think when we're outstanding is when we work together."

But many of McArthur's Harvard colleagues and students are less restrained in their evaluations of his work.

"He has done a really first rate job in managing a very complicated institution, filled with very successful people," says Harvey V. Fineberg '67, dean of the School of Public Health and a close friend of McArthur. "From a personal point of view, he could not have been a better friend."