Board of Overseers Reelects Hesburgh as Its President

The Board of Overseers yesterday re-elected as its president the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, former president of the University of Notre Dame.

Hesburgh, who has been president of the Overseers since the middle of last year, will now serve in the post until June 1996.

Hesburgh was elected "enthusiastically and unanimously," Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs James H. Rowe III '73 said yesterday afternoon.

Overseers interviewed yesterday following one of the board's regularly scheduled weekend meetings confirmed that Hesburgh was elected with out opposition.

The clergy member was the only candidate nominated, several overseers said.

Approached outside 17 Quincy St. yesterday, members of the University governing board praised Hesburgh's first year as president.

United States Circuit Judge John T. Noonan Jr. '47 said that Hesburgh has done "a wonderful job."

"It's a recognition of somebody who's had the right spirit all along," Noonan said of Hesburgh's reelection. "He's had a great sense of the University as a whole."

Hesburgh himself was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Hesburgh, who was elected to the board in 1990, is the first Roman Catholic clergy member to serve as president of the overseers.

He assumed the presidency of Notre Dame when he was just 35 years old, and held the office for three and a half decades. Hesburgh is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the recipient of the most honorary degrees, with 127. One of those degrees came from Harvard in 1973, when he was the Commencement speaker.

When he was first elected president of the Overseers last year, Hesburgh emphasized the need to recruit faculty of the highest caliber, as well as to guarantee that all students can afford a Harvard education.

The Board of Overseers is the less powerful of Harvard's two governing boards. The board, which meet about six times per year, consists of 30 members, elected by alumni for six-year terms.

The other board, the Corporation, consists of seven members appointed by the University for indefinite terms.