Outgoing Associate Dean of the College DAVID P. ILLINGWORTH ’71 talks with SARGEANT RICHARD MEDEROS. Illingworth announced this month that he would leave his position later in the summer.

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71, who handled student group affairs from University Hall for the past four years, announced earlier this month that he has decided to leave Harvard.

Illingworth, who will step down from his post this summer, has worked as a dean and in the Admissions Office for a combined 22 years and is a member of the staff appointed by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

Illingworth’s departure follows the ouster of Lewis in March and a restructuring of the College administration that combines the oversight of academic and extracurricular matters—some say to the detriment of the latter.

Incoming Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 will merge the office of undergraduate education he lead for the last year with Lewis’ when he takes over next week. Gross announced this week the appointment of four associate deans to serve beneath him.

Despite the turbulence in University Hall in recent months, Illingworth called his departure from Cambridge “a personal matter.”

A Maine native who left to attend Harvard College and Divinity School, Illingworth said he has plans to move to his home state’s largest city for family reasons.

“My elderly parents live in Portland and I would like to be closer to them in the years to come,” Illingworth wrote in an e-mail. “I also would like to return to my vocation as a priest in the Episcopal Church and I’m excited about various opportunities for service there.”

Lewis called Illingworth “one of Harvard’s great servants.”

“Dean Illingworth understands Harvard students very well, and has particular expertise in the areas of musical performance and spiritual life,” Lewis wrote. “But he has overseen a complex operation, mostly driven by student initiative, with a consistently supportive and fair hand.”

Lewis added that Illingworth has “grappled sensitively” with difficult dilemmas like balancing students’ right to protest—such as during the April 2001 takeover of Mass. Hall by the Progressive Student Labor Movement—with “preserving the rights of resident students to study and sleep in peace.”

Illingworth, who was known for his consistently cheery demeanor, has also taken on other controversial issues during his deanship.

This past year he drew criticism from some students for his handling of the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship’s constitutional requirement that its leaders profess faithfulness to certain Christian doctrines. Ultimately, the Committee on College Life, which includes both Lewis and Illingworth, decided to allow the provision to stand.

Gross said that he had known “for some time” that Illingworth was considering leaving and that he respects the decision.

Gross wrote in an e-mail that Illingworth “will be hard to replace.” Among the appointments he announced this week was that of Judith Kidd to serve in an expanded version of Illingworth’s post, as an acting associate dean.

Although Illingworth did not say that Lewis’ departure had led to his own, the two are good friends, and many members of Lewis’ staff have expressed unhappiness with the sudden firing of their boss.