Every August for the past 19 years, Elizabeth Chapman Hewitt has seen her students pack their belongings and leave Cambridge for destinations throughout the country, carrying with them memories of their Harvard experiences. Today she will join them.

The veteran director of Harvard’s Secondary School Program (SSP)—known for her direct style of interaction and exacting standards—is retiring from her post with the closure of this summer term. She hopes to take advantage of her first year away from the Cambridge bustle to finish a nonfiction book called So There, Stupid World that she began as a student several years ago, she says.

During her years at the helm of the SSP—a program enabling about 1,000 high-school students to enroll in classes and extracurricular activities at the Harvard Summer School—Hewitt came to be known best for her distinctive administrative and personal manner, colleagues say.

“Most people, when they’re first introduced to it, are astonished by her style,” says SSP Assistant Dean Keith Moon, who has worked with Hewitt for a total of eight summers. “She is blunt, and she is spare with her language. She says what she thinks needs to be said, and I think that is sometimes jarring for folks around her.”

But Moon says Hewitt’s direct, if sometimes brusque, style has garnered respect among many of her colleagues because of the candor it countenances.

“I always know exactly where Elizabeth is coming from,” he says. “What I like about working with Elizabeth is that I can disagree with her and we can have an honest discussion. She is not afraid to disagree with anyone.”

Hewitt’s co-workers describe her a conscientious administrator fearlessly true to her own beliefs—and to her love of precise grammar.

“She’s a stickler for correct use of the English language and she is not afraid to correct people of any rank, including many of her colleagues with a Ph.D.,” says Summer School Dean of Students Christopher Queen.

Co-workers credit growth and development of the SSP over the past 20 years primarily to Hewitt, who became director of the then-10-year-old program late in 1984.

Since then, she has been closely involved with every aspect of the program, reading students’ applications over the course of the year and hand picking the proctors—many of whom are former students in the program—who work closely with the high school students outside the classroom.

Now, as she prepares to retire, Hewitt—who will be succeeded by William J. Holinger from the Graduate School of Education—says she’s sorry to leave the group of colleagues that she has assembled around her.

“I’ll miss the assistant deans with whom I’ve worked over the years and the proctors,” she says. “I’ve enormously enjoyed them.”

Each summer, as other University administrators found some relief from the academic year’s fast pace, Hewitt faced the arrival of hundreds of high-school students. But her busiest season, she says, was by far her favorite.

“It’s been a pleasure to be with this marvelous group of people year after year. The summer is what you live for in this program. The winter is just something to get through.”

Under Hewitt’s leadership, the number of students enrolled in the SSP increased, and program itself saw a number of adjustments.