Giving at the Office

William M. Rand, Jr. '43 and Peter K. Barber '70 are products of different eras, of different wars, of different sets of values. One grew up with the Andrews Sisters, the other with the Rolling Stones. Yet they have a couple of things in common: they both went to Harvard, and they are both volunteers in the current $250 million capital fund drive. Their reasons for joining the drive, as might be expected, differ radically.

The stereotypical impression of the alumnus fund raiser conjures up visions of a balding, bespectacled ex-business executive who spends his time drinking fine sherry, poring over rare volumes in his study, and reflecting back on the good old days of college. Peter Barber doesn't fit that mold. "The good old days" he remembers here were not always so good, and they are not yet old enough to have lost their sting.

He remebers the riots and the protests and he remembers in particular one April morning back in 1969. "I stood on the steps of University Hall as the police marched in," he says, emphasizing that he does not fit the Harvard fundraiser stereotype. "I'm not doing this out of any blind trust in it as an institution. I happen to feel that I owe back to society--whether through the government, Harvard, or some community chest--a portion of what I earn."

Barber says his chief motivation for supporting the fund drive lies in the University's proposed uses for the money. The stated goal of the drive, as President Bok said in announcing the project, is "not...to expand the size of the University, but to maintain and enhance its quality." Increasing financial aid to middle-income students and "preventing the erosion of faculty salaries" are two primary goals of the drive, says Thomas M. Reardon, director of University development. Barber says he wholeheartedly supports these two objectives, adding that "if this had been a bricks-and-morter drive, I probably wouldn't have gotten involved in it at all."

Barber says many of the fundraisers--contrary to popular opinion--share his own view of Harvard and his motivations in joining the drive. "It is a very diverse group that is working on this drive. There are a hell of a lot of people volunteering who are not rah-rah, racoon-skin coat-at-the-football-game types."

Like most Boston-area fund-drive volunteers, Barber works through the Harvard Campaign offices at Holyoke Center, contacting his classmates by telephone. He has two problems in eliciting donations from classmates that older alumni of the '40s and 50s don't face. The first one is obvious and is a problem that every solicitor of young alumni must face: "The younger classes haven't been working as long and don't have as much to give," he says. The other problem is strictly a result of the times in which Barber and his classmates went to school. "A lot of people still have a lingering resentment about Harvard's inaction during the Vietnam War era," he says, adding that while "time mellows the acuteness of anything," there is "no question" that some bad feelings remain.

For William Rand, the turmoil of the Late 60s have caused problems of the opposite nature--though to a far lesser extent. Where Barber must deal with alumni who still resent Harvard's conservatism during that era, Rand must face classmates who balk at Harvard's alleged liberalism. "Some people were upset when the University got rid of its military programs--though they were bucking under to pressure. Some others thought Harvard had a communist element stirring then."

While Barber's generation feared the military and tried to avoid service at all cost, Rand's generation learned to worship it, and to want to be a part of it. "there was no question but that we were ready to go to work for our country--no question like there was in the 60s," says Rand, who joined the Navy directly upon graduation in 1943.

Like his father--now 95 and living near his son in Lincoln--Rand is a class agent, and he has actively participated in fund-raising for the University since his 25th reunion in 1968. He is, in every sense, a loyal Harvard trooper. Both his brothers went to school here. He supports the drive, not so much for its specific goals, but because it is Harvard and because it is Harvard and because he revels in what he calls "very high class" dinners and functions Harvard provides for fund drive supporters. Had this been a "bricks-and-mortar" drive, it seems unlikely that Rand would have withdrawn support the way Barber might well have. "Nobody enjoys asking other people for money, but at least when you're doing it for Harvard, there's no question about the organization you're working for," he says, adding, "I am very fond of Harvard as an institution and proud that I am a part of it."