Friends say Summers commanded strong loyalty among former students and colleagues at Harvard even after he moved to Washington.

Zeckhauser, one of the professors whom Summers has talked with regularly for years, said Harvard was never far from Summers' mind--even during his tenure as treasury secretary.

"It was remarkable to me," he said. "Taiwan was going down the drain...and he would say, 'What's going on at Harvard? Who's getting appointed? The land acquisition at Allston, what does that mean?'"

Following an invitation to students and faculty members to send written input on the presidential search, many professors in the Economics Department wrote letters to the search committee commending the then-head of the Treasury Department.

His friends from the University and elsewhere--including former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin '70--also met with the committee many times during the nine-month search. But whatever influence they possessed collectively, they are modest about the individual sway they had over the secretive body.

"I was one of many, I'm sure, who spoke with the search committee about Larry," Rubin said. "I would tell them what I said all along, that he was extremely well qualified."

Former White House Chief of Staff Gene Sperling said he followed Summers' appointment to his position at the Treasury very closely. But, in the tightly-controlled Harvard presidential selection process, Sperling said, "it wasn't something where I personally was helpful."

The search committee actively sought out input from some long-time Summers acquaintances, but just knowing the presidential contender was no guarantee of influence.