In February 1973, Sidney Verba ’53 walked into a classroom in Harvard Hall, ready to teach his first government class as a Harvard professor.

Verba was eager to return to Cambridge and teach in the same classrooms where he had studied history and literature as an undergraduate 20 years before.

But instead of finding a group of equally eager undergraduates, Verba greeted an empty room.

No one showed up to his first class, which had failed to make it into the course catalogue due to his mid-year arrival.

This disappointing debut, however, would be an anomaly in Verba’s career here, where he has been embraced as a funny, amiable and brilliant professor.

Verba, who is Pforzheimer University professor and director of the University Library, has served as associate dean of undergraduate education and chair of the government department. And over the last 25 years, he has been tapped to lead a handful of the most controversial Faculty committees.

Verba’s success as an administrator led many to consider him a frontrunner for dean of the faculty when Henry A. Rosovsky stepped down from the post in 1984. And it’s the reason he has been chosen to head so many committees with challenging mandates.

“Whenever there’s a hot potato, an administrator somewhere in Harvard looks for Sid,” says Markham Professor of Government Kenneth A. Shepsle. “And with good reason.”

The white-haired academic has pioneered a quantitative approach to political science and is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on political and civic participation.

He has garnered a spate of prestigious awards—including several for career contributions to political science—but is most proud of being named one of the nation’s “tweediest” professors by M Magazine.

“That is the high point of my career,” he quips. “It was the first time I really got any respect from my kids.”

Friends and colleagues describe a brilliant man who is overburdened with commitments but manages to tackle them all with a wise-cracking sense of humor and a friendly attitude.

Reclining in an office chair with his legs propped up on his wrap-around wooden desk, Verba nonchalantly acknowledges his hectic schedule.

“I’m half-time teaching, half-time researching, and half-time administration—and the rest of the time I take it easy,” he jokes.

The Diplomat