Ceremonies

A lot of people yelled and screamed when the John F. Kennedy Library and the Radcliffe Quadrangle Atheletic Center were being planned, but everybody was all smiles this week as officials gathered to dedicate the two structures.

Out at Columbia Point, national and international leaders gathered to dedicate the library and recall the memory of John F. Kennedy '40. President Carter and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) each appeared on the platform, with the President poking fun at the Senator's possible challenge to him.

The library, a magnificent stone and glass structure designed by I.M. Pei, was slated to be built next to where the Kennedy School of Government now stands. But community fears about possible increased congestion in the Square forced the library corporation to change those plans and pick the Dorchester site.

The guest list read like a Who's Who of Camelot, with such notables as former speaker of the House John D. McCormack; John Kenneth Galbraith, Kennedy's ambassador to India and Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus; and former secretary of defense Robert W. McNamara conspicuous in the crowd.

In a slightly less grand ceremony up on Garden St., President Horner, Radcliffe officials and community residents gathered to dedicate the $2.24 million Radcliffe athletic facility.

The gym, which includes squash courts, locker rooms, a lounge and a large multipurpose area, was the focal point of community opposition in the Observatory Hill district for the last several years.

But nobody contested Horner when she called the gym "a significant new dimension to the quality of life at the Quadrangle."