Dillon still took time out to give back to his alma mater.

Allison recalled sending a tape of a presentation on the Cuban Missile crisis that his class had done to Dillon, and that the former secretary had written him back a “very kind” letter detailing how he himself agreed and disagreed with the presenters.

Dillon served two terms on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the University’s second highest governing body, from 1952-58 and from 1966-72, and was President of the body from 1968-72.

Mason Hammond

Mason Hammond ’25, a Harvard professor and House master who during the 1940s hunted down art stolen by Nazis during World War II, died Oct. 13, 2002. He was 99.

Hammond, who was the Pope professor of Latin Language emeritus at the University, accrued a lengthy list of distinctions throughout his life, including a Rhodes Scholarship and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, presented to him by former University President Neil L. Rudenstine in 1994.

From 1942 to 1946, Hammond traveled through Sicily, Italy and Germany as a Monument, Fine Art and Archives Officer working to recover art that had been stolen by the Nazis. For his work, he received the French Legion of Honor Award and was honored by the Italian and Dutch governments.

After World War II, Hammond headed the School of Classical Study at the American Academy in Rome. He twice served as the director of Harvard’s Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence.

Hammond’s scholarly resume boasts an impressive list of works. He particularly enjoyed translating the works of Plautus, a Roman comic playwright.

“He was by nature a historian, a pure scholar,” said his daughter, Anstiss Hammond Krueck.

Hammond served as master of Kirkland House from 1945-55 and was Lowell House’s first senior tutor, according to his daughter.

“He was not just a dry and shriveled scholar; he enjoyed the company of his fellow men very much,” Krueck said.

He loved the Signet Society and the communal table at the Harvard Faculty Club, she said.

Hammond used his commanding voice at Commencement, where he was the “caller” who calls the classes to parade.