Patricia A. King will step down from her post on the Harvard Corporation at the end of this year, the University announced Monday. King, who is a graduate of Harvard Law School and professor at the Georgetown Law Center, has served on the Corporation since 2006.
An expert in the legal and ethical issues surrounding biology and medicine, King told the Harvard Gazette that her reasons for leaving were family-related, but that it had been a “great privilege” to serve on the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body and the oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere.
“I will look back on these years with a sense of deep appreciation, and with admiration for the people who make Harvard so extraordinary,” King told the Gazette.
Two years ago, the University announced that the Corporation, which is officially known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College, would undergo a major structural change for the first time in its more than 350 years history.
Term limits were imposed on Corporation members and the size of the membership was increased from 7 to 13. King cited her role in those reforms as an accomplishment she especially valued.
“She has a clear moral compass, a penetrating view of what matters most to Harvard and higher education, and a wonderfully probing, firm, and yet gracious and generous way about her that has contributed invaluably to the Corporation’s work,” Faust told the Gazette.
Harvard’s charter dictates that King’s replacement will be decided by a vote of the Corporation, along with consent from the Board of Overseers, the University’s other, larger governing body.
The Corporation’s composition last changed in September, when Jessica T. Mathews ’67 and Theodore V. Wells, Jr. were selected as its newest members.
—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu.
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