Overall, Slichter cherishes his quarter-century on the Corporation.

"I just feel that it's been a remarkable experience to resume my acquaintance with Harvard in such a manner," he says. "I just realize how lucky I am that someone reached out and tapped me like that to come here, and I tried to do my best."

"It's something which has been very gratifying to me," he concludes. "Because I really feel that Harvard is just a magnificent place and deserves being preserved in that way and helped to thrive."

Drawing Money From a Stone

The appointment of Robert Gregg Stone Jr. '45 to the Corporation appears to have been less of a given.

When Albert L. Nickerson '33 left the Corporation in December 1974, the University was left with two lawyers and two academics as the Fellows of Harvard College.

A business executive was very much in order, then-president Bok said at the time.

So no November 17, 1975, Stone was named to the Corporation.

And Huge D. Calkins '45, a former Crimson president who was on the Corporation at the time, says he was a bit surprised. But Stone did well in the end.

"Bob Stone turned out to be an absolute genius," Calkins says. "I think I was [surprised] when we picked Bob Stone, but he turned out to be the consummate fundraiser."

Stone is known throughout the University for his unparalleled ability to bring cash to Harvard.

Former Corporation member Blum says Stone convinced him to contribute by a multiple of 10 more than he had originally intended in a recent capital campaign.

"When Bob puts the bite on you, you know you're bitten," chuckles Blum, who served with Stone for more than a decade on the Corporation.

The key to Stone's success, colleagues say, is his unwavering enthusiasm for the University.

"I've never seen anybody who has the same enthusiasm for developing resources for Harvard," Clakins says. "He would hear about an Arabian sheik who had some remote connection to Harvard, and he would hop on the next plane there."