When Summers learned of the attack, he was quick to gather information and create a plan of action, said Assistant Provost Sarah E. Wald, who was in a staff meeting with Summers the morning of the attack.

“He recognized that there were certain things that needed to be done immediately,” she said. “He was very engaged and very decisive.”

He is not the first Harvard president to be tested by a crisis larger than higher education. University President James B. Conant ’14 spent much of his time in Washington during World War II, and Derek C. Bok governed a troubled campus during the conflict in Vietnam.

“We will prevail in the struggle in which we are now engaged because we will not succumb to the temptation of nihilism,” Summers said during the morning prayer service. “And despite what has happened, we will cherish the ideals on which this University and our nation were founded all the more.”

Later that day, Summers addressed a regular Friday prayer meeting for Harvard’s Muslim community in Lowell Lecture Hall, emphasizing the University’s commitment to its Islamic students.

“We cannot tolerate any failure to respect individuals as individuals,” he said.

On Sept. 19, Summers posted another letter addressed to members of the Harvard community on the Harvard website.

Tucked amidst his repeated reminders to preserve diversity was an eye-catching proposal—a $1 million contribution toward scholarships for victims’ families—the largest University donation outside of New York.

Though Harvard officials were hesitant to talk about the details at first, they said the decision emerged out of an administrative consensus that Harvard should help relief efforts. Some officials have even suggested that Summers himself spearheaded the donation effort.

“I give him full credit for it,” Gomes said.

A week later, the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of America “Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund”—chaired by former President Bill Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole—and the American Council for Education announced that they would join Harvard’s efforts and create a September 11 Scholarship Fund, quickly placing Harvard—and Summers—in the national spotlight as leaders of the effort.

But Summers has not sought the public arena. As a former Secretary of the Treasury, Summers could have taken to the airwaves as a commentator. But he has not retreated into a world of CNN interviews and op-ed columns.

Instead, his prominence on campus has grown.

—Staff writer Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at shoichet@fas.harvard.edu.