Harvard’s ‘Chief Cheerleader’

Robert Gregg Stone, Jr. ’45-’47, who was known among his colleagues as the University’s “chief cheerleader” during his 27 years on the Harvard Corporation, died on April 18 at age 83 due to complications following a stroke.

In his time on the Corporation—the University’s highest governing body—Stone served on the search committee that named Neil L. Rudenstine Harvard’s 26th president in 1991. And as the Corporation’s senior fellow until 2002, he led the panel that ultimately picked Lawrence H. Summers as its 27th.

Incoming Interim President Derek C. Bok ranked Stone “among the three or four most influential people of the last 25 years in helping to shape Harvard’s constructive influence on the world.”

A prodigious fundraiser, Stone “would hear about an Arabian sheik who had some remote connection to Harvard, and he would hop on the next plane there,” longtime Corporation member Hugh D. Calkins ’45 told The Crimson in 1985.

“I don’t want you to give ’til it hurts,” Stone would tell potential donors, according to former University treasurer D. Ronald Daniel. “I want you to give ’til it feels good.”

A GOOD ‘FELLOW’

As an undergraduate, Stone concentrated in economics and was a member of the Owl Club. A Kirkland House resident, Stone captained the men’s heavyweight crew squad, setting a world record for 2,000 meters.

“He just threw himself into his Harvard experience,” Daniel said. “And it never left him.”

After college, Stone went on to become a top executive in the shipping industry, first as president and chairman of State Marine Lines, then as president of the Kirby Corporation, an inland tank barge operator. And in 1975, Stone was named a fellow on the seven-member Corporation—“the greatest honor he felt he ever had,” according to his son, R. Gregg Stone III ’75.

Today, the Corporation has come under fire for being secretive and insular, but Stone’s colleagues remarked that he interacted closely with undergraduates at Harvard while serving as a fellow.

In the mornings preceding Corporation meetings, Stone would often meet with undergraduates in the Faculty Club for breakfast to listen to their concerns.

“I think it was helpful to the undergraduates, but more importantly it really informed Bob about what was going on, and he really took delight in those sessions,” James R. Houghton ’58, the Corporation’s senior fellow, said in a telephone interview.

Stone is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marion Rockefeller Stone of Greenwich, Conn., as well as his six children and 15 grandchildren, according to the University.

—Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.