After 12 years at the helm of Currier House, Master William A. Graham and Co-Master Barbara S. Graham will step down at the end of the academic year, they announced to House residents in an e-mail yesterday.

William Graham, who is Albertson professor of Middle Eastern studies and professor of the history of religion, was named acting dean of the Divinity School last January and was named to fill the post permanently in August.

Graham, whose 12 years in Currier make him the longest-serving master in a single House among current masters, said he had been thinking about departing since he assumed the deanship, but he and his wife had told Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 they would try staying on. But yesterday Graham said the deanship’s demands on his time were simply too great.

“We finally decided that we need to step down in order to be fair both to this special community and to our other responsibilities,” he wrote in an e-mail. “If I want to be able to teach at least a little as well, I cannot for the long haul be doing both a faculty dean’s job and a master’s job and serving in two faculties at the same time.”

“Barbara is equally committed in her ‘real-life’ job in a very full-time senior administrative post in the University Library,” Graham added.

Graham’s announcement comes just months after Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson announced this would be his last year as master, leaving Lewis without his two most senior masters next fall.“I understand [the Grahams’] decision to step down...but I will miss them very much,” Lewis wrote in an e-mail. “They have been infinitely kind, patient and understanding—both with students and with deans!”

According to Lewis, the search for a new Currier House master will begin immediately. Lewis will visit Currier tomorrow to consult students and start the search, which will be similar in format to the search already underway in Winthrop.

The vacancies present two more opportunities for Lewis and University President Lawrence H. Summers to appoint a racial minority to the position of master—something that has only happened twice in Harvard history. Former Dunster House Master Karel Liem, who left his position in 2001, was the last professor of color to serve as master, and he and others have called on Lewis to diversify the masters’ ranks.

“As we search for House masters or any other position, diversity of this community and diversity of its leaders is something that’s obviously very important, but it’s not our way to set aside particular positions for particular groups,” Summers said yesterday.

Currier residents expressed sadness at the Grahams’ announcement and praised the couple for their work as masters.

Currier House Committee Chair Marc D. Manara ’04 said his favorite memories of William Graham were at House-wide events, such as masters’ open houses, when Graham would traditionally deliver brief remarks—a reminder to students, Manara said, “that he does enjoy our company and that he really is concerned about us.”

Lewis called the Grahams “caring, compassionate and dedicated,” and Manara lauded their warmth and involvement with students.

“They’re very friendly, very open, very easy to approach,” Manara said. “They make good efforts to reach out to the students and you can tell that they care.”

According to Lewis, the Grahams were especially proud of Currier’s representation on last year’s undefeated Ivy League championship football team.

“When [players] were unable to make some House dinners because of their practice and travel schedule, the Grahams put on special dinners in their residence,” Lewis wrote.

The Grahams said they would miss their close ties to the residents of the House.

“When we leave in June, we shall miss everyone here more than we can express, but we are confident that the special place that Currier has been will go on being...the ‘best kept secret’ in the College,” they wrote in their e-mail to the House yesterday.

The couple will be moving just around the corner to the Divinity School dean’s residence, and the Grahams said they hope to stay in close contact with residents of Currier. But Manara said the House will still be affected by the loss.

“They’re so comfortable in the House, and we’re so comfortable with them as our masters,” Manara said. “The House is definitely going to miss them a lot.”

—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.