Pusey was praised during his tenure for his core beliefs about education, his fundraising, his defense of the University against McCarthyism, his strong support of an ailing Divinity School and his early calls for a merger between Harvard and Radcliffe.

Looking back, he is most proud of the work he did to give the University a strong financial foundation.

"It had a reputation as being in good financial shape when I was appointed," Pusey says. "But I saw that the University that was presumed to be the richest in the world was in desperate need of money."

In his remembrances of his time at Harvard, Pusey talks a lot about his work with the Corporation and the Overseers, with whom he was close personally.

"It couldn't have been a happier kind of government," he says. "All of the members of the corporation all enjoyed each other and their wives all enjoyed each other and we were it."

He worries that the members of the present Corporation lack academic backgrounds, especially in the context of the present presidential search. He cannot stop talking about how thankful he is that Hanna H. Gray, the former president of the University of Chicago, sits on the selection committee.

"I'm counting on Hanna Gray in being almost decisive in picking the new president," he says. "Out of her experience and sense and judgement will come a solid choice...Hanna is the kingmaker in recent years."