Departures Leave House Masters Unruffled

Three pairs of House masters will be leaving Harvard this summer—taking with them 35 years of combined experience—but those remaining say they are confident that their collective performance will not be dramatically hindered by the departures.

Tempering the loss of these six Masters—hailing from Cabot, Eliot, and Mather Houses—is the shared knowledge retained by the remaining leaders, 10 of whom will have served for at least 10 years when the next academic year begins.

Of the departing three, Mather House Masters Sandra F. Naddaff ’75 and Leigh G. Hafrey ’73 have led the pack with 18 years of experience, bestowing upon them the reputation of being a “great source of wisdom,” according to Leverett House Master Howard M. Georgi ’68. Due to her seniority, Naddaff has led the docket committee that sets the agenda for the College’s monthly meetings of House Masters.

“Sandra and Leigh do have a lot of accumulated institutional knowledge, and she uses that to very good means in our meetings and the policies that we follow. So it’s going to be a loss to see her go,” said Quincy House Master Lee Gehrke. “At the same time, there are other Masters who have significant experience too.”

Due to the recent economic crisis and the changes that have taken place in the College administration over the last 10 years, having experience beyond the last decade is not as critical, Adams House Master John G. “Sean” Palfrey ’67 said. The Masters have recently had to tackle a host of issues such as budget cuts and imminent House renewal that were nonexistent 18 years ago.

But Palfrey said that when considering the effect of the Masters’ departure, the combination of personality and perspective in the outgoing Masters—including Cabot House Masters Jay M. Harris and Cheryl L. Harris and Eliot House Masters Lino Pertile and Anna Bensted—trumps the number of years they have under their belt.

“They are people who really are wonderful, and we will miss their presence among us,” Palfrey said. “It is less related to their longevity than the type of people that they are.”

Georgi and Lowell House Master Diana L. Eck—who, along with their partners, will lead the remaining cadre in terms of years of experience—said that while the looming departures may not have a tangible effect on the group, the loss of the outgoing House Masters’ experiences will have an impact.

“That does leave a bit of a vacuum, and we will all try to pick up our part as best we can,” Eck said.

“We’ll all have to work harder to make up for her loss,” Georgi said.

But several Masters said they agreed that the appointees will bring new ideas and energy to the table.

“You don’t want to hire just a bunch of old Masters who are fuddy-duddies who will do what has been done before,” Palfrey said. “You want to hire people who will say, ‘This is what we can do with this system.’”

Moreover, Gehrke said that the “infusion of fresh ideas” will be complemented by the institutional experience of the other Masters.

“I think the remaining Masters will not hesitate to remind them of the way it used to be,” Gehrke said. “So I think they’ll be brought up to speed on the learning curve.”

—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.