In the words of Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67, “I can’t think of anyone who’s done more to shape the modern Harvard at the grassroots level than Fred.”

In his nearly five decades as a Harvard administrator, L. Fred Jewett ’57 oversaw the merger of the Harvard and Radcliffe admissions offices, expanded the scope of Harvard’s recruitment efforts beyond white male New Englanders, and later in his career—while serving as Dean of the College—made the decision to randomize the House lottery.

L. Fred Jewitt '57

Jewett did not intend to spend the majority of this life working for Harvard after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1960; he says that he was considering a career in the foreign service. But his early and exemplary work as an adviser to first-years while he attended business school put him on a career path that would eventually take him to one of the top posts at the College.

After serving as assistant dean of freshmen, Jewett joined the admissions office in 1964, where he worked as director of freshman scholarships from 1967 to 1972. He served as dean of admissions for 13 years—from 1972 to 1985—after which he began a 10-year term as Dean of Harvard College.

His retirement from the office in 1995 did not end his relationship with Harvard, however. He has continued working for the admissions office, sitting in on meetings and fighting, as he always has, “for deserving students who are going to make a difference,” according to Fitzsimmons.

McKay Professor of Computer Science Harry R. Lewis ’68, who was Jewett’s successor as Dean of the College, describes him as a “wonderful human being.”

“There’s no one—and there are a lot of people definitely devoted to Harvard—there’s no one more devoted to Harvard than Fred Jewett is,” Lewis says. From his work in the admissions office to his post in University Hall, Jewett thought of himself “as the temporary custodian of a family,” Lewis says.

Lewis and Fitzsimmons credit Jewett for his work opening up Harvard to women, students of limited means, and a wider geographic range of applicants.

“He recognized that excellence comes from every stratum of social class and that there are some incredibly bright, able people out there who maybe haven’t all the advantages but still will do great things in their lives,” Fitzsimmons says.

Jewett describes his office’s guiding philosophy while he was admissions dean as “always looking for unusual qualities—academic, extracurricular, and persona—that we thought would add to the overall class. People with special talents and ability and not just straight academic credentials.”

“Fred always insisted on trying to get people who would make other people around them better,” Fitzsimmons, who worked under Jewett and succeeded him as admissions dean, says.

The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations recently comissioned a portrait of Jewett to hang in the large conference room of the admissions office. The Director of the Harvard Foundation, S. Allen Counter, spoke to Jewett’s efforts to broaden Harvard’s applicant pool. “No one has done more of that than the person whose portrait is presented here today,” Counter said at the portrait’s unveiling.

When asked what has kept him at Harvard for so many years, Jewett answers simply, “I think the people. I think not only the students, particularly the students in the [admissions] process and those who come, have always been the most important and meaningful, but also the faculty and staff. They’ve been very important to me.”

According to Fitzsimmons, there is an anecdote of former Dean of the Faculty Henry Rovosky in which he says that all that is required for a great university is to get the greatest faculty and the best students.

“I would argue that over time,” Fitzsimmons says, “no one has had more influence over the latter [than Fred], I would daresay in the history of Harvard.”

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.