Former Technology Director Dies at 68

Guy J. Ciannavei ’55, a former director of Harvard’s University Information Systems (UIS) who presided over radical technological changes in the 1970s and a small-town historian who took pride in graveyards and his Italian roots, died Mar. 14 in the Caritas Norwood Hospital in Norwood. He was 68.

Ciannavei, an Army veteran who battled multiple sclerosis for 30 years, died of congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia.

In his career of more than 30 years with UIS, Ciannavei implemented two major technological initiatives, said Peter J. Heffernan, UIS manager of finance and planning.

Until the early 1970s, the University operated two data centers—one for the central administration and academics and one for research data. Ciannavei was the UIS manager who oversaw the merger of those two systems into one center in 1973 and 1974.

Also in the ’70s, Harvard and MIT operated a joint information center that was located at MIT. In 1979 that arrangement was terminated and Harvard’s portion of the workload was moved back to campus—another significant effort led by Ciannavei.

Ciannavei was born in Walpole and spent his most of his life in the Greater Boston area. He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1951 and went on to study at Harvard College.

After graduation, Ciannavei went into the armed forces for two years where he worked as a clerk. He later worked for an electronics laboratory and owned a liquor store for several years.

Ciannavei began working at UIS in 1966 as manager of accounting and finance and later became manager of the Harvard Computing Center and associate director of the Office for Information Technology before scaling back his work as a result of his illness, Heffernan said.

He retired from Harvard in the mid-’90s.

Outside his work with technology and management, Ciannavei maintained interests in history, culture and even genealogy.

He kept up an active involvement with the Walpole Historical Society, serving as president and then scaling back to vice president when he became ill.

“He always had projects,” said his wife Joanne C. Ciannavei.

Ciannavei created a calendar with four or five historical facts about Walpole for each day of the year and donated some of the calendars to local schoolchildren.

He also created a video about the oldest cemetery in Walpole, researching about the tomb stones and the people who were buried there.

With his involvement in Walpole community affairs and the historical society, Ciannavei made a name for himself in his hometown.

“A lot of people know him because he grew up in Walpole and lived there for much of his life,” his wife said. “People who had moved away would call him and ask him various things they wanted to know about the town.”

Ciannavei was a member of the Genealogical Society of America. He enjoyed several trips to Italy where he studied his own family history, Joanne Ciannavei said. He was also a member of the Italian-American Club in Walpole.

In addition to his wife Joanne, Ciannavei is survived by his two sons, Marc F. Ciannavei and Paul R. Ciannavei.