"There wasn't a critical mass of black students to form any sort of alternative culture or identity," says Gomes, who is Plummer professor of Christian morals and minister in the Memorial Church. "Few of us could be described as race-conscious."

During the tumultuous '60s, Gomes says, many students perceived Epps as "the administration's man," siding with the University rather than with students making radical political demands.

The most celebrated example of his loyalty to the administration took place on April 9, 1969. Three days after Epps married Valerie Claire Thompkins, University Hall was occupied by students protesting ROTC's connection to Harvard and the destruction of black residents' homes in Roxbury for Medical School construction.

Demonstrators removed Epps from the building by force. The Crimson reported that he was "bodily thrown out the door" while telling the students repeatedly, "You are responsible for what you are doing." A photograph of the struggling Epps was published in The New York Times.

Epps says while the students' aims might have been laudable, he still frowns on their actions.

"It's not the goal you want but the method you use," he says.

Gomes says Epps still recalls the incident in no small detail.

"All is forgiven...but all is not forgotten," Gomes says.

The Peacemaker

The crisis of 1969 underscored the need in University Hall for someone who could bridge the widening gulf between disaffected students and disconcerted administrators. When his predecessor resigned under pressure in 1970, Epps was appointed Dean of Students.

"Archie was a known quantity," Gomes says. "He was not some obscure person propelled into the limelight...It didn't hurt that he was black, and it didn't hurt that he had an establishmentarian point of view."

Epps is credited with serving as a mediator between divergent groups through the decade that followed, brokering deals with endless patience.

"He was an interpreter of students to all of us," says Derek C. Bok, president of the University during the 1970s and '80s.

Epps says his influence on the College derives from the struggles he helped resolve.

"I've been at the points of conflict," Epps said. "[My role is] to be the person in the middle."