Before Mike Berry There Was Frank Weissbecker

If there's a revolution going on in the Berry-era, Frank Weissbecker says that in his 17 years as dining services director he saw changes you wouldn't believe.

Thought of now as the man who refused to dump fish pizziola, Weissbecker and his former co-workers say that he is the one who added chilled juice at every meal, a salad bar and the basic food table.

Now, Weissbecker says, he shies away from the dining administration details that he lived in his more than 40-year career at HDS.

"When someone new comes on board I think the old person should stay way, way back," he said. "So I don't ask, `How was it going?'"

The former director, once an hazy specter in students' minds, does come back to visit. Weissbecker even eats at Harvard some days.

At the Faculty Club. (Which, by the way, is not on the meal plan.)

Weissbecker may not be a presence in the dining halls, but those who have worked with him say that he is responsible for many of the successes credited to Berry.

Feedback cards and deli day, for example, were the brainchildren of Weissbecker's team.

Berry, who has drawn effusive praise during his brief tenure, says that Weissbecker may have been "less comfortable" around students.

"He was a shy, demure man," Berry says.