Kennedy Letters Found After 6 Months

Several missing letters written by Robert F. Kennedy '48 found last June in Winthrop House have been turned over to the University archives, House Master James A. Davis said yesterday.

The letters, which were first discovered by students last June during a dorm crew clean-up, had been missing for six months until they were located recently.

Kennedy wrote the letters to his mother during the early 1940s, describing his life at Harvard and his reaction to his first days in the Navy.

Davis said he does not know the contents of the letters. "I felt a little awkward about reading them," he commented. "They were kind of personal."

Harley P. Holden, University archivist, said yesterday the letters "are not of any great historical interest," but, he added, "I'm glad they've come to a safe rest."

Sheng Bin Chiu '79, dorm crew supervisor at the time the letters were discovered in the closet of a Winthrop House room, remembered handing the letters to Winthrop House Superintendent Ben Bartie on the last day of the clean-up in June. Bartie said he does not remember receiving the letters.

Davis said the letters were found "somewhere in the House when the House machinery started scurrying around for them" after hearing the letters were missing. He attributed their disappearance to "typical Harvard inefficiency."

"The real mystery," Davis said, "is what were the letters doing sitting there for 30 or 40 years?" Davis said he is not sure whether the letters were left in Winthrop by Kennedy himself or another member of the Kennedy clan.

Holden said he is considering informing the Kennedy family of the letters' whereabouts and offering to return them.