Trying out for the position of student conductor of the band was Fineberg's one try for a leadership position, Rose recalls. Fineberg did well but didn't nab the job.

"I think he wasn't flamboyant enough," Rose says. "It was meant to be much sillier than Harvey could have been. It needed someone who was willing to be gross."

"I doubt people in the House knew how smart he was or how solid he was," Rose says.

Rose says that while Fineberg was clearly extraordinary to his roommates, other people might not have noticed.

But Zeph Stewart, a classics professor who was then Master of Lowell House, remembers Fineberg as "a very impressive young man."

"I thought he was very able and very personable," Stewart says. "I felt I knew him particularly well."

In those days, Fineberg remembers, Lowell was very different. One difference was the dining hall. Food was served in front of the fireplace, and boys came to meals--even breakfast--decked out in coat and tie. He favored one particular tie for meals.