concern for the search committee.

But Summers' former students remember their relationships with Summers at Harvard for more than the influence he had on their careers. It was at Harvard that many colleagues got their first sense of the breadth of

Summers' intellectual pursuits.

"He was incredibly energetic. You'd run into him in a hallway, and he

would talk and talk," Katz said.

The Political Insider

Summers' interest in the broader aspects of intellectual discourse continued at the World Bank, where he became a vice president and chief

economist in 1991, and then at the Treasury Department.

"I worked very closely with Summers, not only because of his central role in the administration, but because he was the most driving intellectual force in the Clinton administration," said Michael Waldman, a chief Clinton speechwriter.

Summers quickly became an administration insider, the only Cabinet secretary invited to the senior staff meetings every morning.

The Cabinet-level post of treasury secretary sits at the top of a 140,000

person-strong bureaucracy, which includes the Internal Revenue Service

(IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Secret

Service and 40 percent of federal law enforcement.

It was in his role as secretary, colleagues say, that Summers gained the

managerial skills they felt would serve him well as Harvard's president.