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D. Ronald Daniel, a longtime treasurer of Harvard University who saw the University’s endowment quadruple in value from $4.7 billion to $22.6 billion during his 15-year tenure, died on Dec. 16 at his home in New York City. He was 93.
His cause of death was not immediately available.
As treasurer, Daniel served as the University’s chief problem solver for over one decade. First elected to the Harvard Corporation in 1989, Daniel shepherded the largest university endowment in the world. His commitment to Harvard extended beyond his time on the Corporation — Daniel served as a mentor and trusted adviser to his successors as treasurer and other members of Harvard’s top leadership.
Those who knew Daniel described him as a reserved and thoughtful presence with a strong vision for the University, even in difficult circumstances.
“He was invariably calm, steady, and on top of everything,” said Jack R. Meyer, the former CEO of Harvard Management Company.
“Ron had this uncanny knack for knowing just when to step in, summarize, and move us forward,” Meyer added.
As treasurer, Daniel was tasked with managing the University’s investment portfolio and overseeing new individual investments. He had previously spent over a decade as managing partner at McKinsey and Company, and according to Meyer, it was Daniel’s expert sense of what investments were worth taking on additional risk that allowed the endowment to balloon as much as it did.
Daniel was born in 1930 in Hartford, Connecticut. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan in 1952 and later attended Harvard Business School, where he graduated in 1954 with an MBA. Daniel later joined the U.S. Navy, where he served as an officer in the Aviation Supply Office before joining McKinsey.
Paul J. Finnegan ’75, the University’s outgoing treasurer, recalled meeting with Daniel in his office when Finnegan was selected to become treasurer in 2014. At the meeting, Daniel showed Finnegan a framed graph hanging on the wall that displayed the massive growth of Harvard’s endowment under Daniel’s tenure.
“He showed it to me in a very gracious way. It wasn’t bragging,” Finnegan recalled. “But he just said, ‘Hey, take a look. Not to put pressure on you, but take a look.’”
“That was an extraordinary time for Harvard, and he was quite proud of it,” he added.
Daniel was known for taking a hands-on approach, and he regularly spent time on campus, getting to know deans and taking faculty members out to lunch. One of those faculty members was a young Economics professor named Lawrence H. Summers.
“He was a very formal, strong, rather reserved person but extremely generous in his approach and with a great capacity to listen,” Summers said about Daniel. “He deserves much of the credit for the best period of Harvard’s endowment performance.”
“He lived by a philosophy of ‘trust but verify,’” added Summers, who served as the University’s president when Daniel retired from the Harvard Corporation.
An adviser to three Harvard presidents over his tenure as treasurer, Daniel was on the presidential selection committee for both Summers and his predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine.
“He was very open and very supportive,” Rudenstine said. “Almost any problem that came up, he never got upset about it. He always simply said, ‘Well, how do we tackle this?’”
When the Corporation was debating whether to extend employee benefits to same-sex unions in the early 1990s, Rudenstine said he was initially concerned the measure wouldn’t pass, but Daniel ultimately swayed the group in favor.
“Everybody agreed in the end,” Rudenstine said. “If it wasn’t for Ron taking the lead, I don’t know whether it would have happened.”
Daniel joined McKinsey in 1957, where he would work for the next 60 years, advancing to the role of Global Managing Partner. Daniel stayed in the position for 12 years before stepping down in 1988 to be Managing Director Emeritus.
Harvard President Derek C. Bok, who led the University from 1971 to 1991, wrote in a statement to The Crimson that he asked Daniel to take a role in overseeing Harvard’s finances over a lunch in New York. While Daniel’s record at McKinsey showed him to be the right person for treasurer, Bok said a successful recruitment seemed like a long shot.
“Everyone told us that he would be a superb choice but that he would never agree to serve in view of all his other duties,” Bok wrote.
But Daniel “immediately accepted,” Bok wrote. “It turned out that he had a secret ambition to become involved with a university.”
In addition to his role as treasurer, Daniel also served as Chairman of the Harvard Management Company, Chairman of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School, and a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers — the University’s second-highest governing body.
Daniel is survived by his wife Lise Scott, three children, one stepchild, 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.
—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles or on Threads @camkettles.
