Despite the criticism he had received, Prince Charles kept the tone of his address light and humorous.
“Have no fear, ladies and gentlemen, I am used to being regarded as an anachronism,” he told the crowd.
“In fact, I am coming round to think it is rather grand—although parents, has it ever crossed your mind as to how you educate an anachronism?” he added. “Perhaps during the course of this address you will find out that it has proved to be a fruitless task.”
A CELEBRATION OF HISTORY
The motivation behind Harvard’s 350 celebrations were “pretty simple” at the end of the day, according to Reardon.
“It was the celebration of a great American icon,” Reardon said, “and [it was] to show the strength of the place.”
He recalled sitting next to a secret service officer during the address of then Secretary of State George P. Shultz when a plane passed overhead.
“A secret service officer turned to me,” Reardon recalled, “and said, ‘Well, that won’t happen again.’”
Sure enough, no second plane ever passed.
“I suppose that you could say,” Reardon said, “that the 350 was telling the world that Harvard was a mighty place.”
“It’s still a mighty place,” he added.
With three convocations, 106 symposia, a ball, and an event attended by 27,000 spectators at Harvard stadium that featured the Boston Pops, the sequence was intended to celebration the University’s expansive history.
“There were all kinds of dinners and things of that sort. There were fireworks like I never saw, showing ‘Veritas’ up in the sky,” said Reardon, referring to the stadium extravaganza. “I remember that [University] President Bok was concerned about what that was going to be like.”
Reardon said that he thought the celebration was an opportunity to enjoy the rich history of the institution.
“I think that people wanted to say, ‘You know, we’ve had a great run as a university. We’re 350 years old and we’re very strong today and we want to celebrate that,’” Reardon said.
—Staff writer Sabrina A. Mohamed can be reached at smohamed@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Alyza J. Sebenius can be reached at asebenius@college.harvard.edu.