After a short celebration, elated committee members—Houghton, Gray, Gagnon, and Stone—Summers and University spokesperson Joe Wrinn piled into a convoy of chauffeured sedans and raced for Newark airport. There awaited Houghton’s private Corning jet, ready to whisk them to Cambridge and a scheduled 5:30 p.m. press conference to announce to the world that Summers would be the 27th president of Harvard University.
Two hours later, Summers stood in the ballroom of Loeb House, looked out into a sea of television cameras, and stated simply, “It’s good to be home. I accept.”
—Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.
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