Dean Kaufmann Steps Down

Robert E. Kaufmann '62 associate dean of the Faculty for finance and administration, resigned late last month to become headmaster of Deerfield Academy August 1.

Deerfield's board of trustees selected Kaufmann from an original list of more than 200 names in part because they were "impressed with his work both in the dean's office and the admissions office" at Harvard, Michael E. Sheridan, treasurer and business manager of the academy, said yesterday.

Filling In

Dean Rosovsky said yesterday he was considering several persons to fill the associate deanship and added that he expected to name someone by the start of the regular school year.

Comrades

"He was a very good person, and I was delighted to work with him," Rosovsky said of Kaufmann, who had been associate dean since 1971. Kaufmann is vacationing in Yellowstone National Park and could not be reached for comment yesterday.

While associate dean, Kaufmann helped to balance the Faculty budget in the early 1970s "without getting anyone really mad at the dean," Melissa D. Gerrity, assistant dean of the Faculty for financial affairs who has worked closely with Kaufmann, said yesterday.

"One of Bob's greatest attributes was his personality, which allowed him to be more than a budget officer," Gerrity said, adding, "It's one thing to draw up numbers; it's another to make people believe them, and Bob was able to do that."

In looking for a successor to Kaufmann, Rosovsky "would like very much to have some long-range capability" for financial planning, Gerrity said.

"One of the things we all have recognized lacking in the Faculty is the ability to do long-range things because we all get wrapped up in day-to-day stuff," she added.

Gerrity said Rosovsky has consulted several members of the administration on possible choices to succeed Kaufmann and on ways to improve the Faculty's long-range financial planning capability.

Thomas O'Brien, financial vice president and one of the administrators with whom Rosovsky spoke, said yesterday, "Bob played such a central role in the administration that the dean didn't want to replace him without thinking it through carefully."

Kaufmann possessed a "great knowledge of the Faculty and the institution," O'Brien said, adding, "He listened to and talked with and consulted the Faculty and made them feel like they were a part of the decision-making process."

Several members of the Deerfield board of trustees yesterday cited Kaufmann's work at Harvard and his brief tenure as a teacher and house master at the academy as the main reasons behind his selection as headmaster.

"We wanted desperately to find somebody who had experienced the Deerfield mystique," John Louis Jr., chairman of the Deerfield board of trustees, said yesterday, adding that Kaufmann had a "deep and abiding desire to work with students."

Louis said the board of trustees had reached an agreement with Kaufmann allowing him "time to get the things done he wants to get done" at the academy. Deerfield appoints headmasters to renewable annual terms, but several trustees said they expected Kaufmann to remain at the school for some time.

John Weinberg, a member of the board of trustees, yesterday cited Kaufmann's leadership qualities, his background, his concern for students and his "excellent people skills" as the main reasons for his selection.