Filling one of the more pressing holes in his senior administration, University President Lawrence H. Summers announced yesterday that Alan Stone will take over as vice president for government, community and public affairs in early November.

Stone, who holds the equivalent position of vice president for public affairs at Columbia University, replaces Paul S. Grogan, who stepped down as vice president July 1.

The announcement came after the Fellows of the Harvard Corporation approved Stone’s hiring at their meeting this weekend.

In an interview with The Crimson yesterday, Stone said his decision to leave Columbia was not an easy one, but was driven by his desire to work at Harvard and the sense that the moment was right for him to move on.

“There’s a transition underway here, a new president is going to be chosen and there’s a small amount of uncertainty,” Stone said. “I’ve been at Columbia six years, and Harvard is one of the few universities I would have thought to leave for.”

Stone said he is looking forward to working with Summers and the public affairs staff currently in place.

“I know the Boston area, and I was very impressed with the ideas about this job that President Summers had,” Stone said. He said he also knew many of the other members of Harvard’s government, community and public affairs office, having encountered them in various professional settings.

In a press statement, Summers praised Stone and his record.

“I am impressed with Alan’s breadth of experience,” Summers said. “He has a distinguished record of service at the most senior levels of government in policy-making and politics, making him ideally suited for this assignment.”

The Course Ahead

Though Cambridge and Allston community leaders were not familiar with Stone, they said they were optimistic about his appointment and looked forward to working with him.

Stone faces significant challenges on the local level in the months ahead. Relations with Cambridge have soured over the past few years, and the University currently has long-range plans to expand into Allston—a move which will require close collaboration with Boston city government.

City Councillor Kathleen C. Born said Stone has a chance to make an impact by fostering personal connections with Cambridge leaders and working towards continued transparency in relations.

As vice president, Stone will oversee the members of his office whose direct domain is local affairs.

How big a role Stone plays personally in these relations is an open question. His predecessor, Grogan, was seen to be very involved in relations with Boston and Allston, but less so in Cambridge.

Born said that while Grogan got off to a good start, some councillors began to feel he was taking Cambridge for granted. “Town-gown relations have had their ups and downs,” Born said. Born pointed to a meeting Summers had with councillors in August as an encouraging sign, and said she hoped Stone visits early on as well.

“There’s no substitute for personal contact with the community leaders, for putting a system in place where there’s transparency, and where you can build relationships,” Stone said.

A History Of Good Work

Co-workers said that during his tenure at Columbia, Stone revitalized the public relations of the university. Stone arrived as the first vice president of a newly integrated public affairs division, which combined government, community and communications concerns under a single roof.

Columbia’s Associate Vice President for Public Affairs Virgil Renzulli said Stone was brought in to make the most of this new structure in presenting a unified face.

“When he came the various departments were not nearly as strategically oriented, and their goals not nearly as integrated,” Renzulli said.

At Columbia, Stone dealt with the same types of complicated community issues that he will face at Harvard.

Emily Lloyd, Columbia’s executive vice president for administration, said that like Harvard, Columbia is expanding and encountering the space crunch of a crowded city. Renzulli described a wide spectrum of community activists, borough presidents, non-profit organizations and neighborhood groups that Stone dealt with in the course of his job.

Renzulli and Lloyd said they are sad to see Stone go.

“He is extremely good at what he does, but also is someone with a great sense of humor,” Lloyd said.

Rolling Stone

Stone’s professional roots are in Washington, D.C., where he served in a variety of policy advising positions.

He arrived at Columbia in 1995 fresh out of the Clinton administration, where he served as a senior speechwriter.

Stone and Summers—who was rising through the ranks of the Treasury Separtment when Stone left—are said to share mutual friends.

Stone previously worked more directly on policy as a top aide to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and as a top staffer on several Congressional committees.

Stone, 57, has a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, and is a lawyer by training. After graduating from George Washington University Law School in 1969, Stone joined Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) where he worked in Worcester, Mass. and later opened a rural legal service office in Colorado.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.