Illingworth Begins New Post

This week, David P. Illingworth '71 became the College's first Associate Dean for Extracurricular Activities--not to mention its first dean to adorn the walls of University Hall with a velvet Elvis.

"I'll definitely find a place for him here," Illingworth says of the Elvis, which hung on his Byerly Hall wall while he was associate director of financial aid last year. "I found him to be a humanizing influence in admissions."

And as he begins his term as dean, serving as a humanizing influence in the College administration seems to be near the top of Illingworth's list of priorities.

"So much of it is about listening to people and finding how to give them a voice in an institution," Illingworth says of his job.

Since Illingworth first came to Harvard as an undergraduate in 1967, he has gone from being Episcopal priest--a job he continues in his "non-Harvard time"--to working in admissions and, most recently, in the Dean's office.

And while his latest move might seem like a big career jump, Illingworth says it builds off of the interpersonal skills he developed in the admissions office, which he credits with teaching him to "remember that everybody comes as a new person" and to appreciate students' interests outside the classroom.

Illingworth calls extracurriculars a "more immediate home" for students than academics and promises to play a big role in supporting them. Finding space for extracurricular groups is high on his agenda.

But mostly, he says, his job now is "basically to listen to as many people as I can listen to."

And while Epps had likened himself to an independent, "solitary dean" Illingworth describes himself as a team player.

"I think it's important to have regular colleagues that you bounce positions off all the time," he says.

But after coming into the post with no previous experience in a similar post, he says much of his agenda is still undefined.

"So much of it just has to wait until situations arise, and then you deal with it," he says.

"I think my individual style isn't totally known yet," he adds.

And while Illingworth says it's also too early to tell how long he will stick around in the post which his predecessor filled for a quarter century, he has already spent half of a lifetime at Harvard.

"I guess I'm one of those middle age people at Harvard who are kind of career civil servants of this place," he says.