"He loved clever puns," Biddle says.

Gwynne was also a gifted singer.

Biddle says he and Gwynne would entertain their high school friends by singing a capella--Gwynne was a bass.

Gwynne followed Groton with a brief stint as a radio operator during World War II and then headed to the New York Phoenix School of Design, where he planned to pursue his interest in art.

But his singing changed Gwynne's plans.

In 1946, two years before Gwynne came to Harvard, Biddle and David G. Binger `48 founded the College's famous a capella group, the Krokodiloes.

On a visit to Harvard, Gwynne heard the group perform and, according to Binger, decided to become a part of it.

"He really came to Harvard for the Kroks," Binger said. "He had a wonderful voice."

At Harvard, Gwynne began designing covers for the Harvard Lampoon and became the organization's president in 1950.

Madyn Gwynne says some of her father's fondest memories were of the Kroks and of the Lampoon.

"I went to a Krokodiloes reunion with him once," Gwynne says. "He loved singing, and he loved his College years-especially the Lampoon."

But while at Harvard, Gwynne also began acting. He became a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and acted in a series of Harvard plays.

"He was a very good Shakespearean actor," Biddle says. "That's where he got his reputation."

Both Biddle and Binger say Gwynne helped popularize the theater scene at Harvard and fill the seats in the Brattle Theater.

"When we came to Harvard, it was bereft of arts," Biddle said. "We started arts at Harvard."