Executive Director of the Harvard AlumniAssociation (HAA) John P. Reardon Jr. '60, whooversees the Harvard clubs, says that most clubsdon't have similar dual structures but that it'snot unusual or even suspicious. The Harvard Clubof New York, for instance, has a similar structuremainly for tax purposes, Reardon said.

Reardon said that during his years ofinvolvement with the HAA he had never heard of asimilar situation and does not foresee any majorchanges to how Harvard supervises its clubs.

"Clubs have a fair amount of independence toset things up the way they want to...," he said."We go on the basis that our alumni are trying toserve Harvard and not themselves. It doesn't occurto me to upset the apple cart over one toughincident."

University and club officials currently do notknow if any other donations might be missing.

Why Chick issued a check for more than$385,000, the amount of the only donation known tobe missing, remains a source of confusion.

A letter sent by the club's executive committeeto its members on July 29 states, "In March...theformer Club President finally remitted to HarvardUniversity a sum of money which included themissing donation, as well as funds which belongedto the Club and/or the Harvard Club Foundation."

Former club treasurer Yun K. "Edward" Wongadmits that what lead in part to these problemswas a lack of supervision on his own part.

Wong said that he was completely unaware of thedonation because he did not review the monthlybank statements. In January 1997--a few weeksafter the donation was made--Wong said Chickapproached him about transferring money from theclub's savings account to a time deposit account,which pays a higher interest rate.

"I thought we only had a small amount of money[about $100,000]...so I wasn't worried about it,"Wong said.

After the donation left the clubs checkingaccount, Wong said the chance of his learning ofit was greatly reduced.

"My mistake is that I didn't monitor theaccount more carefully," Wong said. "I didn't seethe need to look at the statement every month."

Club Politics

Financial mishandlings are only part of theHong Kong club's difficulties. Other disagreementsas well have driven club members from theirproverbial club house.

Peter Gordon '80, a long time coordinator ofthe club's alumni interviews, left the club twoyears ago.

Gordon said he left "for reasons of ethics" andfor what he considered to be the misuse of theHarvard name.