Educators and friends gathered yesterday to honor the memory of a former dean of the College who is best known for his decision to leave.

John U. Monro '34-'35, who led Harvard's earliest efforts to recruit poor and minority students, left his prestigious post to become director of freshman studies at an impoverished black college in Alabama. He remained in the South and taught until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's five years ago at age 84. He died last March.

In a service in Memorial Church attended by about 50 people, colleagues from Harvard and from several southern black colleges remembered his role as a trailblazer in black education.

"It is not often the case that a dean of anything rises to the rank of hero, here or anywhere else," said Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes, who said his own brief turn at teaching in the South had been inspired by Monro's example.

Richard E. Arrington Jr., former mayor of Birmingham, Ala., and Hubert E. Sapp '67, who worked with Monro at Miles College, described him as an administrator who involved himself in the lives of his students.

"These students were the absolute poorest in the nation," Arrington said. "They all so badly needed inspiration. John infused so many of these young people with a new vision."

In addition to his administrative responsibilities at Miles, Monro taught a writing class for first-year students. Sapp recalled him leaving his office at night carrying piles of blue books filled with essays.

"No matter how large a place he started from," Sapp said, "he gave his full attention to each individual, each task that he had before him."

Fred L. Glimp '50, former dean of Harvard College, told how Monro transformed financial aid at the University by devising some of the first formulas based on students' individual needs.

Monro also started Harvard Student Agencies, which sponsored student businesses, to support undergraduates whose financial situations required the additional income.

"He created a powerful vision of a more varied and energized Harvard in a changing America," Glimp said.

Gomes, who was a student at Harvard Divinity School at the time Monro left, said the surprising departure influenced his own life decisions. When he heard that the College dean had left for "deepest, darkest Alabama," Gomes said, he decided to head to Alabama himself, where he spent two years teaching before returning to Harvard.

The two met once during those years. When Gomes addressed him as "Dean Monro," though, the former Harvard administrator corrected him-he was now just director of freshman studies.

After the service, Jane W. Sapp, who taught at Miles with her husband Hubert Sapp, said the day's tributes had revived memories of the years she worked alongside Monro.

"You know, a lot of this stuff makes it sound like John Monro was a saint, like he was bigger than life," she said. "But he really was. For all the people who knew him, every word expressed today was true. He was an example of the best of humanity."