“The rebirth of the freshman seminar program was really made possible because of [Knowles’] commitment to it,” Pedersen said. “He put a great deal of work into personally engaging the Faculty with that issue when we first thought about expanding it.”

But Knowles’ most far-reaching curricular initiatives came just two years ago. In 1999, he proposed a series of interdisciplinary endeavors—totalling several hundred million dollars—in the natural sciences that ultimately created new centers for genomics research and for the imaging of tiny structures.

After years of battling budget deficits, Knowles in recent years has turned to the Faculty itself and made increasing the number of tenured professors a top priority.

Since the 1998-1999 academic year, the Faculty has increased from 603 to 637 professors. And under Knowles’ tenure, the number of senior female Faculty members doubled.

“My legacy, I hope, would be a yet more exciting and intellectually distinguished faculty, an even better student body, and the best possible educational experience for them,” he said.

—Daniel K. Rosenheck contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.