Knowles Returns Home

After spending much of the spring in the hospital battling complications from prostate cancer, former Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Jeremy R. Knowles has returned home.

“It's been a rough ride for the last two months, but the doctors and nurses have been superb and I am back at home beginning to feel like a human being again,” Knowles said in a statement Thursday provided by his wife, Jane.

One year ago, the 34-year Harvard veteran, who led the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1991 to 2001, agreed to head the school on an interim basis while undergoing a private battle with prostate cancer.

His struggle became public on April 17 when then-Interim President Derek C. Bok, who had also returned to lead the University for a second time, announced to professors that Knowles’ condition had worsened.

In a message sent to Faculty of Arts and Sciences professors that evening, Knowles promised to return soon. A week later, he was forced to enter Massachusetts General Hospital, suffering from pneumonia and sepsis.

Now at home, the British chemist known for closely tracking University politics appears to have recovered his signature wit.

“One of the first traits to become reestablished,” Knowles said of his return, “was the need to read the Crimson!”

—Staff writer Samuel P. Jacobs can be reached at jacobs@fas.harvard.edu.