Former Dean of the College Dies at 75

L. Fred Jewett ’57, a longtime Harvard administrator who served as Dean of the College and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, died Sunday at age 75.

His decades-long Harvard career took him from earning four degrees to serving as a freshman proctor to eventually filling the highest administrative office at the College. At every stage, Jewett was known for forging strong personal relationships with undergraduates and promoting diversity in the student body.

“Fred Jewett was a pillar of the College for more than a generation,” University President Drew G. Faust said in a statement Thursday. “He profoundly shaped the undergraduate experience and was dedicated to opening Harvard to the most talented students, regardless of background. I’m deeply saddened by his loss.”

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 recalled Jewett’s “blazing intelligence.”

“He was a good person to have on your side if you’re playing Trivial Pursuit,” Fitzsimmons said. “His knowledge really went across the board. Talk about someone who was a polymath=he was it.”

Jewett graduated from the College magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to receive two degrees from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and another from the Business School.

Colleagues recalled that as an administrator, Jewett focused on issues of social justice like expanding admissions to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, integrating women into Harvard, and diversifying the upperclassman Houses.

“Fred’s vision and leadership did much to create today’s Harvard,” Fitzsimmons said.

When Jewett arrived at the College, there were fewer than a hundred students of color per class—a number he sought to increase in his role in the admissions office, according to Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter.

Fitzsimmons said, “He cared deeply about ensuring that Harvard be accessible to outstanding students from all ethnic and economic backgrounds.”

His focus on equality extended to gender as well. He oversaw the integration of Harvard and Radcliffe’s admissions offices, a key step toward equal treatment of men and women at the University, according to former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

According to his niece Megan E. Jewett ’86, her uncle’s passion for creating a more egalitarian admissions process was sparked by his personal experience coming to Harvard from what she described as “a very, very modest situation.”

As Dean of the College in the mid-1990s, Jewett played an instrumental role in the randomization of the upperclassmen housing lottery, a move intended to increase diversity in each House.

“His interest was in the welfare of the students,” said neuroscience professor John E. Dowling ’57, who was Master of Leverett House at the time and had known Jewett since their undergraduate days together. “He really understood Harvard and the value of the Houses.”

Jewett was an avid supporter of Harvard athletics, even accompanying teams on road trips.

“We were not just a team he enjoyed watching, but rather we were a bunch of individuals that he knew, admitted, and watched grow over a four-year period,” said Bobby Hackett ’81, an Olympic silver medalist in swimming.

Jewett’s concern for students extended far beyond the playing field.

“At one dinner in his honor, one student recounted how Dean Jewett’s strength was in his small gestures,” recalled Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67. “If one student was wavering in his commitment to Harvard, he would take the student out for a burger at Bartley’s.”

Longtime friend and Harvard Alumni Association leader John P. Reardon Jr. ’60 said that even when Jewett was working in the admissions office, apart from the daily life of the College, he made a point of interacting with undergraduates.

“I doubt that in his time that anybody knew as many college kids as he did,” Reardon said. “In admissions, he’d remember everything. If he met a student for the first time in the Yard, he’d tell them everything they wanted to know about themselves.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.