John H. Finley: The Harvard Man

John H. Finley `25 has for decades been the quintessential speaker for a Harvard gathering, and Commencement 1982 will be no exception. As his friends and colleagues repeat tirelessly, no one better symbolizes all that is special about the University: commitment, excellence, tradition. Few have been here as long or can express themselves in more vivid and stimulating terms.

His career in Cambridge spans more than 50 years, including these as an undergraduate and doctoral student, than as one of Harvard's most learned and popular lecturers, and as master of Eliot House from 1941 through 1968. Finley is more than just another life-long Harvard man; he is, says current Eliot master, Alan E. Heimert '59, "en embodiment of the golden age of Harvard."

In all he has done, Finley has demonstrated an unusually effective and personal method of helping others, both through his teaching and during his term as a House master. As Eliot Professor of Greek Literature. Finley thrilled students for 30 years with passionate and image-filled lectures on the Classics, enabling even the most uninterested undergraduate to understand and enjoy the intricacies of Homer and Virgil. And, as Eliot House master for 27 years--the longest anyone has ever served in a master's post--Finley wrote letters of reference for every one of the approximately 150 seniors who graduated from Eliot each year, "trying to get fellows out in the open," Finley recalls.

He says that his teaching career at Harvard began purely by accident, when a position opened up after a professor suddenly became blind. But Finley quickly gained recognition on his own for his speaking style and colorful analyses of Greek figures, most notably the historian Thucydides, who served as the topic of several of Finley's written works. Referring to Finley's "imagined interpretations of such heroic figures as Achilles and Odysseus," longtime colleague Albert Lord '34. Porter Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature, emphasizes Finley's "elegance of expression."

"He has a way of making these people alive and bringing their lives and motions to the students." Lord says, adding that Finley's "associations of ideas and images are frequently striking because they are quite homely." Finley says that an elocution class at Exeter provided his only "formal" training.

"When he starts to tell you something, you listen," says Eliot Perkins `23, professor of History emeritus. Perkins--who as a one-time master of Lowell House, had a longstanding rivalry with Finley--says that while he was two years ahead of Finley as an undergraduate, he always remembers him as a "person who stood out." Finley "instinctively knew how the undergraduate mind and perception worked, and he presented the subject matter in a way that the undergraduate would pick up," Perkins says of Finley the professor.

Finley developed his all-consuming interest in literature and languages of the ancient Greek world at Exeter and in his senior year at Harvard won the Bowdoin Prize for an essay on "Euripides and Shaw Compared." A magna cum laude graduate. Finley continued his studies in Greece. Germany and France, where he read the Classics at the Sorbonne. Returning to Harvard, Finley received his Ph.D. in 1933 with a 250-page dissertation written entirely in Latin. He also began teaching that year.

General Education in a Free Society, a book which Finley co-authored in 1945, became the foundation for Harvard's famous distribution requirements system, and the "Gen Ed" plan for liberal education was immediately imitated by colleges across the country. Finley recalls that one impetus for this project was his fear that the expected post-World War II technology boom would eventually lead to an "evaporation" of interest in the social sciences and humanities. Calling the origin of Gen Ed "another great event," Finley points to one of the plan's earliest successes: Humanities 3, which he taught with Harry Levin '33, Babbit Professor of Comparative Literature. "The Epic and the Novel" remained one of Harvard's most popular courses through the years, and, when last offered in 1973, it attracted more than 850 students, second in enrollment only to Harvard's all-time favorite, "Principles of Economics."

Levin--who covered the novels for one term, while Finley took care of the epics during the other--recalls that his former colleague employed a "poetic approach" in doing "an apostle's job for classical culture."

Just as he played a major role in shaping the academic structure of Harvard. Finley was also instrumental in nurturing the House system, which had existed for only 12 years when he took over at Eliot. He made great progress toward dispelling his own fears, as expressed in his 1950 25th Reunion Report, that it would be difficult to strike the proper balance in the Houses between "their possible future as communities of some influence on students versus their future as little but not much more than dormitories."

"He was the spirit of Eliot House and was involved in virtually all House events," says Harvard's General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54, who, as a student in Eliot was impressed by Finley's "creativity and imagination." Steiner recalls that Finley used to study the Freshman Register photographs of incoming Eliot students so that he could know and greet all new sophomores by name. He made "only an occasional error" when introducing graduating seniors to receive their diplomas, adds Steiner.

Finley "had a great capacity for seeing the good aspects of people." Steiner recalls, saying that Finley's example has helped him "try to focus on people's strength rather than weaknesses."

While Eliot House's "elite" reputation may have existed prior to Finley's term as master, he did little to refute the image. He held "Grand Dinners" for Eliot students with guests such as T.S. Eliot, Leonard Bernstein, and notables from The New York Times, which his father edited from 1920 to 1940. Though he never followed his father's path into journalism, Finley edited. The Advocate during his senior year at Harvard and probably gained at least a taste for elitism as a member of several clubs, including the A D the Phoenix S.K., and the Hasty Pudding.

Since his retirement from active teaching in 1976, the 78-year old Finley has remained busy at his Tamworth. N.H., home. He recently won a national book award for a new interpretation of Homer's Odyssey. He still plays squash and tennis, which he learned at Harvard from then-national champion Palmer Dixon.

Comparing the Harvard of today to the one he knew for so many years. Finley denies that the school "has changed any faster than America." He adds that as an institution "open to change," Harvard has always "tried to keep pace."