A Decision Long in the Making

McArthur said that no recent event led to hisdecision to step down.

"We talked about this the first day Neil was inCambridge before he started as President and heasked me if I would stay on until he got started,which I was pleased to do," McArthur said. "Ithink we began to talk about this date...justabout Christmas a year ago in '93."

The dean said the timing of his announcementcentered around the completion of some reviews andhis "guesstimate" at the time was that they wouldbe completed around this past Christmas.

McArthur's decision to leave also comes justmonths after the completion of the planning stageof the curriculum overhaul at the Business School,called "Leadership and Learning."

But McArthur also wrote in a letter datedyesterday that the death of his mentor, George P.Baker, '25 and the birth of his granddaughtercontributed to his decision.

According to the dean, the timing of hisresignation was decided last June. Apparently,last summer, McArthur had planned to haveRudenstine attend the March meeting of theBusiness School's visiting committee, thisSaturday, and the school's Board of Associates,later this month, in anticipation of making theannouncement around this time.

In Rudenstine's letter, however, the presidenttraced the talk of ending McArthur's tenure backtwo years--as opposed the four years McArthurreferred to in the interview.

In the same letter, McArthur wrote that he hadsaid from the beginning of his tenure that hewould leave when he finished his work.

"My work is done," he wrote.

In preparation for his departure, McArthur saidhe had written thousands of letters to all partsof the community ranging from staff to cabdrivers.

McArthur said he would continue in hispositions as Chair of the Mass General/Brigham andWomen's merger as well as Chair of the Brigham.

He refused to give any hint of his futureplans, saying only that he was going to take sixmonths off before making any decisions. He didsay, however, that he had ruled out joining theMafia.

"I can tell you specially, I don't have any[plans]," McArthur said. "I have lots to do forthe moment with these hospitals in Boston."

McArthur, who has said in the past few years helooked forward to going back to teaching finance,said he would not resume teaching at the BusinessSchool.