Alumni Return to Observe Commencement Program

More than 5500 loyal sons of Harvard returned yesterday to the scene of their undergraduate days, bringing along their families and guests to take part in the festivities surrounding the University's 311th Commencement.

The Baccalaureate service in the afternoon marked the start of the five-day celebration, which culminates Thursday with the imposing Commencement exercises in the Yard. At the ceremonies, witnessed by 15,000 persons, President Pusey will admit "to the fellowship of educated men" the senior class of 1962, and confer degrees in all on some 3000 candidates.

Radcliffe's Baccalaureate sermon will be given by G. Wallace Woodworth, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Memorial Church. At Commencement Wednesday morning in the Radcliffe Yard, Victor L. Butterfield, president of Wesleyan University, will speak.

The Harvard class of 1937, back for its 25th reunion, met yesterday in a reception at Harkness Commons with President and Mrs. Pusey as guests of honor. Fourteen other classes will hold formal reunion events during the week: 1892, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1912, 1917, 1922, 1927, 1932, 1942, 1947, 1952, 1956, and 1959.

Mounted Lancers Escort Volpe

Both the traditional and new will provide a colorful backdrop to the activities of Commencement week. Many of the stately rituals accompanying Thursday's exercises date to Harvard's first commencement in 1642. In accord with ancient custom, for example, a troop of scarlet-coated, mounted National Lancers will escort Gov. John A. Volpe into the Yard.

Other state and church officials will participate as did their predecessors in the days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The High Sheriff of Middlesex County and the Sheriff of Suffolk County will precede--in ceremonial dress--the procession of alumni and dignitaries as they walk through the ranks of the graduating seniors. And President Pusey will preside from the same Tudor chair used on this solemn occasion since the 18th century.

To highlight more recent aspects of the growing University today, Harvard will offer special symposia and will hold open house in buildings constructed under the Program for Harvard College. Guided tours will introduce to alumni these new buildings:

* the Cambridge Electron Accelerator, which recently set a world's record by accelerating electrons to an energy of 2.2 billion electron volts;

* the controversial Health Center, alternately described as "bleak and raw" or "powerful and monumental";

* the Loeb Drama Center, one of the most versatile theatres in the United States; and

* Quincy House and the Leverett Towers.

At 9:45 this morning Dean Watson, chief Marshal of the 25th reunion class, will moderate a symposium for his classmates and their families in Lowell Lecture Hall, featuring as its topic "Harvard--Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Wednesday morning members of the Faculty and of the class of 1937 will discuss scientific research, music, architecture, and science in national policy at two sets of symposia.

At 11:10 a.m. today, Gerard Piel '37, publisher of Scientific American, will deliver the Phi Beta Kappa oration in Sanders Theater. The annual literary exercises, open to the public, will follow the election of new members and the march to the theatre, led by the traditional fife and drum. Playwright Lyon Phelps will give the Phi Beta Kappa poem.

The Memorial Service, in which the class of 1937 honors its members who have died, will be held at 11:45 this morning in Memorial Church. Following the service, 25th reunion classmates will attend luncheon in their Houses of residences as undergraduates.

In the evening, members of the Class of 1937 will attend a concert of the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall. A moonlight cruise out of Boston Harbor will be held for seniors and their dates.