No Replacement

"CONTROVERSIAL," and "irascible" are the words which most aptly describe William H. Edwards III in his long career as head proctor in Memorial Hall. Better known to a generation of Harvard students as "Dr. Proctor" and Mr. Test," Edwards effected a unique style of monitoring exams which some considered annoying but most found to be a hilarious sideshow.

Much of Mr. Test's charm derived from the fact that nobody, not even most of the Harvard Administration, knew what he did--or who he was--when he wasn't proctoring exams. Although he monitored tests for no more than a small fraction of the year, one could often run into him during the off season in the back corridors of Mem Hall, his formidable midsection barely contained by a stylish outfit, the obligatory tall bottle of Pepsi at his side.

But he lived for exam period. Winter, Spring, GRE's, makeups, Summer School, the Freshman reading test--Mr. Test worked them all. His stentorian voice warned students year after year to have their pencils sharpened, not to use the lavatory until 90 minutes had passed, and to pass their attendance slips to the center aisle. Every Harvard undergraduate since the early 1970s has a favorite story about the voices that came over the P.A. system an hour into an exam and admonished, "Remember that fire exits are located in the front and rear of the building."

Such brash behavior provided much-needed levity for most students during an otherwise grim time of year. But in the past several years, Mr. Test's antics seemed to become more annoying than before. Things almost got out of hand last spring when he allegedly made a mistake about the length of an exam and seized a paper from an astonished student, who later threatened to sue him. It is more than a little ironic that Mr. Test lost his job after years of following a set exam format when he refused to switch to a new two-person system in Mem Hall. To the end he was a man of principle, refusing to share power with another monitor, but state-of-the-art proctoring at last had passed him by, Exams will be much more calm and controlled in the future without Mr. Test's iron grip on the microphone, but they'll also be a lot less fun.