On the first day of his job on January 1, 1980, Dean of the Business School John H. McArthur received two pieces of advice from his predecessor Lawrence E. Fouraker.

News FeatureThe first was to get Harvard's best accountant to keep track of the bills.

The other was to buy lots of umbrellas.

Fouraker told McArthur that his 10-year deanship had taught him that when it rained, visitors would try to prolong the meeting until the rain stopped.

This could be easily prevented simply by stocking up on umbrellas.

To this day, McArthur give umbrellas to people who leave his office when it's raining. along the way, McArthur has taken the Business School through its largest restructuring effort and engineered a pioneering merger between two of the Medical School's teaching hospitals.

McArthur, who announced his retirement this Monday, says 15 years of handing out Business School umbrellas have produced some unusual appearances. In an interview this week, the dean recalls an incident last summer when he flipped to a national TV station broadcasting Pope John Paul II's canonization ceremony.

As the pope stood sweating outdoors, an aide rushed forward and opened an umbrella. Sure enough, it was a red-and-white striped umbrella emblazoned "Harvard Business School."

"[The television coverage] went on for about half an hour--it was great," McArthur says. "Every time the umbrella turned [so that the Business School seal was facing away from the cameral],I kept waiting for them to turn it back."

But saving money and affiliating the Business School with the pontiff isn't all the dean has done. McArthur, arguably Harvard's most powerful figure, leaves behind him a legacy of accomplishments.

Influential Figure

Appointed dean in November of 1979, McArthur was not a new face in the Business School community.

From the day he enrolled in the Business School in the fall of 1957, the native of Burnaby, British Columbia, never left. He joined the faculty shortly after his graduation and rose through the ranks, receiving tenure in 1973.

Ever since he moved into an elegant corner office in 1980, McArthur--a former hand in a Van- couver sawmill--has worked successfully tobecome one of the most influential members of thebusiness elite.

By operating behind the scenes and gettingthings done at warpspeed, McArthur may be the mostpowerful figure at the University, rivaling theauthority of President Neil L. Rudenstine.

In making a rare public pitch for Leadershipand Learning, a revolutionary effort torestructure the Business School's curriculum,McArthur traveled to Yale three years ago andreleased comments from a June 1992 reportsuggesting that the school was facing thepossibility of financial crisis and "flounderingmediocity."