When a turn-of-the-century Harvard secretary was asked the whereabouts of
A. Lawrence Lowell, her immediate answer became a legend. "The president," she said, "has gone to Washington to call on Mr. Taft." Many Harvard presidents have earned such awe. Of the four men who have ruled Harvard since 1869, three were giants among educators Lowell, Charles W. Eliot and James
B. Conant. The fourth, Nathan Marsh Pusey, a tough, capable and frequently courageous man, led a more complex university in a time that sustained few titans. Last week, in a long-awaited move, he announced...