To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

April is a time of new beginnings. The Boston Magnolias emerge and bloom on Commonwealth Avenue, our Boston Red Sox start a new season (albeit a little late), high school seniors learn where they will be going to college, and college/university/trade school graduates learn where they will begin a career. This April for the first time since the spring of 2019, our Harvard Club of Boston community will hold and celebrate our Annual Meeting. This gala will be a new beginning in and of itself – the administrative portion of the meeting will be livestreamed to HCB members throughout the globe. And the celebration portion will be much different than in years past. There will be no head table and no formal speaking program. We will have a live band – siblings Jocelyn ’17 and Chris ’18 Arndt who received their Harvard College degrees and got a rock career! We’ll have dancing, superb food and drink, and Harvard Hall will be setup to accommodate those who want to standup and socialize as well as those who prefer to be seated. We will also give out member awards to recognize special community contributions over these past few years. In effect, we are celebrating YOU, and we hope our members come to our 114th Annual Meeting & Member Awards Reception on Monday 25 April.

Anyone who is familiar with Harvard Yard knows about the gates which adorn its perimeter. Gates too are emblematic of new beginnings, especially for students as they enter The Yard for the first time. From the perspective of Harvard’s 386-year history, the gates in and around the campus are a relatively new phenomenon. For more than 250 years of the University’s existence, Harvard Yard had nothing more to guard its boundary than a low post-and-beam fence. When the Johnston Gate – the initial and grandest component of the present-day enclosure – went up in 1889, many where critical of its towering piers and elaborate ironwork as too pretentious in consideration of the school’s austere Puritan heritage. But as time went on and succeeding Harvard classes raised generous sums to extend the fence and punctuate it with other stately gates, the structure grew to be as beloved as any other of Harvard’s venerable monuments.

At our Harvard Club of Boston, the third floor Member Conference Room (formerly the Washington Room) is adorned with classic photographs of 9 of the 25 Harvard Gates. One in particular has resonated with me since walking through it in 1978.

The Dexter Gate, a gift of the Harvard College class of 1890, was erected in 1901. It was designed by Charles F. McKim of the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead & White who designed the Johnson Gate, as well as the Boston Public Library, Symphony Hall, and New York’s Pennsylvania Station and Columbia University’s library. The Gate was a gift of Mrs. Wirt Dexter in memory of her son Samuel Dexter, Class of 1890, who died in 1894. The gate leads into one of the arched passageways that cut through freshman dorm Wigglesworth Hall, directly across from the Harvard Book Store on Massachusetts Avenue.

Atop the Dexter Gate’s entrance is inscribed “Enter to grow in wisdom.” Most every Harvard freshman learns this, and the more fatalistic of us would in dark humor harken Dante’s hell gate “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” What I did not know, until HCB Board member Andy Freed informed me just as I took on the role of Harvard Club of Boston president, was that the inscription on the “exit” side of the gate states “Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind.” That was a revelation to me.

The concept “grow in wisdom to serve better” is not exclusive to Harvard. It is a guideline for servant leaders everywhere. You do not need a degree to grow in wisdom and having a degree does not guarantee you’ll acquire wisdom. I will say however that Harvard University and the Harvard Club of Boston (with a big assist from Ma and Pa Hegarty) have taught me what is important and how service to others is the greatest and most glorious part of living a good and meaningful life.

As my term as Club president concludes at the 114th Annual Meeting, I hope to have served ye well here. I am proud and privileged to share with you that Marcus O.P. DeFlorimonte, PMD ’95 has been nominated to succeed me. With your good graces, he will be the 40th President of the Harvard Club of Boston. Marcus has served on our Board of Governors since 2013 and has been our House Committee Chair since 2018. He is an immensely talented and dedicated member of our community and is well-equipped to lead, and assist our General Manager Steve Cummings and our Board with the major strategic challenges and decisions ahead. Marcus is the right person at the right time, so please join me in congratulating and supporting him and our entire Club leadership.

In aeternum Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

March is Women's History Month, when we join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. During the month, we will use social media and live events in honoring women’s incalculable contributions during these complex times. One event of special note is our Entrepreneur’s Roundtable on Thursday 17 March where HCB member and Ambassador Committee Chair Debbie Millin will discuss her role as COO during Globalization Partners meteoric success. Another will take place on Thursday 24 March when Lauren Zabierek, Executive Director of the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center lectures on the present global cybersecurity climate, and how it affects not only our safety and security, but also our wellbeing. We hope you can visit the Club for one or both exclusive events to hear these accomplished and talented women.

In honoring the Harvard Club of Boston’s medical professionals with the photo collage on this month’s HCB Bulletin cover, we recognize the courageous and unselfish work of all women and men in the healthcare field. March marks the second year of this world-altering pandemic, and the heroic professionals who have been serving us ever since must never be forgotten, nor ever be taken for granted.

It has been an exhausting twenty-four plus months. Covid crept stealthily as 2019 turned into 2020. The first case reported in Massachusetts was on 1 February 2020. Many underestimated its menace, but we all recall that the world forever changed in mid-March. Locally, Governor Charlie Baker ’79 declared a state of emergency on Tuesday 11 March after the number of recorded coronavirus cases in the state doubled overnight. The following Sunday, the Governor ordered all public and private schools in Massachusetts to close for three weeks, from 17 March through 7 April. The same day, he banned eating at restaurants, banned gatherings of more than 25 people, relaxed unemployment claim requirements, and enacted other interventions to try to slow the spread of Covid. But the scourge had been unleashed. By the end of March 2022, the United States will have lost over 1 million souls to Covid; the world, over 6 million.

While the common population fretted and adapted, the medical community charged into the maelstrom, much in the same way first responders run toward the danger while others reflexively retreat. Over these two years, our brave healthcare professionals have given so much to humanity at great personal and family sacrifice. Remarkably, close to 10% of our Harvard Club of Boston members are directly involved with healthcare. And all of us have someone we love in the healthcare field. The unselfishness of these professionals during a time when society needed their care most is what I will always honor and remember from these past two years. These members are our community’s finest.

As we reflect on our members many contributions, please note that on Monday 25 April our Club community will celebrate our 114th Annual Meeting & Member Awards Reception. This will be a member-centric gala, as we show our gratitude to a committed and vibrant community, one where inclusion and belonging are paramount.

Lastly, the Harvard Club of Boston is not a political organization. We are simply the finest alumni Club in the world with a mission “to be the social, intellectual, and athletic hub of Harvard alumni and our affiliated community in the Greater Boston area.” Yet our sentiments are not bounded by locality as we proudly admire and embrace allies such as our friends in the Ukrainian community both near and far as they confront and resist the lash of a deluded dictator. By our recognition, we affirm the Harvard Club’s Mission, Values and Affirmation statements, at the core of which is deep respect for human rights, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and above all the pursuit of truth. Our Harvard Club of Boston stands in allyship with the people of Ukraine.

Slava Ukrayini! Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82

President, Harvard Club of Boston

president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass

February marks Black History month and gives us an opportunity to reflect upon and embrace the contributions set forth by the African Diaspora. In addition, it’s not only an opportunity to understand the struggles Black people around the world face, but also to celebrate their resilience. This month at the Harvard Club of Boston, in partnership with the Harvard Clubs of Washington D.C. and Ireland, we will recognize Black lives and Black history by hosting another in our series of Allyship events, this one in recognition and support of #DouglassWeek, which is celebrated this year from 10 – 15 February. Frederick Douglass, the great African American abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman has a fascinating relationship with the people of Massachusetts, Ireland, and Washington D.C.

At the age of twenty in 1838 and after several failed attempts, Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland and headed to New York. There he married Anna Murray, a free Baltimore woman, and they fled to the abolitionist haven of New Bedford, MA a whaling mecca and at the time one of the wealthiest cities in the US. From 1841-1847, Douglass lived in Lynn, MA and from this home-base traveled America where his orations on freedom, justice, and societal hypocrisy gained notoriety. In 1845, he penned his famous autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.

During the summer of 1945, Douglass was forced to flee the US to the United Kingdom for fear of recapture by slave hunters after the publication of his autobiography. In the UK, he spent several months campaigning in Ireland, speaking at events in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Belfast, and other cities. As part of this tour, Douglass was particularly drawn to Cork, a city with a strong abolitionist community. He spent a month there in the late autumn of 1845, delivering powerful denunciations of slavery to crowds of thousands, while forging friendships that would last a lifetime, including one with Ireland’s “The Great Liberator” Daniel O’Connell.

Up until this time, Douglass had spoken almost exclusively of his own life and experiences. But in 1840’s Ireland amidst the famine, he witnessed suffering that drew him increasingly into the lives of others. In a February 26th, 1946 letter to renowned Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass described the oppression of the Irish as the “same degradation as the American slave…” Ultimately, Douglass’s position was that the cause of the slave was the cause of oppressed people everywhere i.e., the suffering of one was the suffering of all. It was in part his experiences in Ireland where Douglass’s vision broadened to include women’s rights, Black education, and various other struggles in “…the cause of humanity”.

Douglass returned to the US, and soon became the most acclaimed Black man in the country. He settled in Rochester, NY and during the Civil War he worked to aid the Union cause. He met President Lincoln to improve the treatment of African American soldiers and attended Lincoln's second inaugural. In 1871, Douglass moved to Washington DC where he served under five presidents as U.S. Marshal for D.C. (1877-1881), Recorder of Deeds for D.C. (1881-1886), and Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti (1889-1891).

Frederick Douglass, born a slave in Maryland, never educated but taught himself to read and write, became a master orator and statesman whose life was dedicated to attaining the freedoms foundational to our Constitution. Yale historian David Blight, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2018 biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, wrote “Douglass was a man of words; spoken and written language was the only major weapon of protest, persuasion, or power that he ever possessed. There is no greater voice on America’s journey from slavery to freedom, than Douglass’s.”

As we enter February of 2022, let us acknowledge, honor, and celebrate Black history, and use the time to enlighten ourselves on how the Black community continues to advance culture, industry, and society, even amid all the injustices they still face. Frederick Douglass, his legacy, and memory serve as guiding beacons for us all.

I encourage you to contact me at president@harvardclub.com with your suggestions, concerns, or general remarks.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health traces its roots to public health activism at the beginning of the 20th century, a time of dynamic social reform, an era which saw the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, and the passing of the 19th Amendment (granting women’s right to vote) in 1920. The school emerged from the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in population health, which was founded in 1913 and then became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922. We celebrate the school’s milestone this year and offer a 21st century perspective. First, let’s take a glance back.

The school’s shield is based on the family coat-of-arms of Dr. Henry Pickering Walcott (1838-1932), a Cambridge physician who also served as Harvard’s acting president in 1900/01 and again in 1905. Walcott was a public health luminary, having served for 28 years as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Health, and as president of the American Public Health Association. Walcott advanced the knowledge and application of the principles of bacteriology, sanitary science, antitoxins, and vaccines to an extent that made Massachusetts and Harvard world leaders in these domains. His work to eradicate diphtheria is legend; in the early 20th century, the US lost 15,000 citizens a year to the disease. Pickering and his lab produced the necessary antitoxins and vaccines to eradicate the scourge. Today according to the CDC, there have only been two diphtheria cases reported in the United States between 2004 and 2015. Here we bear witness to public health science’s extraordinary value!

Many of the changes that transpired in public health over the 20th century trace their origins to the school. Initially, researchers like Walcott were preoccupied by deadly epidemic infections (e.g., the Spanish Flu of 1918 – 1920; widely prevalent outbreaks of smallpox, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, etc.), and by the ravages of unchecked industrialization. But during the school’s first 50 years, Harvard’s public health enterprise matured, drawing on a full range of analytic, scientific and policy methodologies. Today, the school’s work encompasses not only the basic public health disciplines of biostatistics and epidemiology, environmental and occupational health, but also molecular biology, quantitative social sciences, policy and management, human rights, and health communications. In effect, it represents the world’s best in healthcare and health policy. The school’s leadership and outreach have gone on to inform public health practice throughout the globe including decades of research in the People’s Republic of China, studies of health system reform in Taiwan and Poland, collaborations on environmental health in Cyprus, and intensive field training in Latin America.

So how did we get from the Harvard School of Public Health to The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health? In September 2014, a charitable foundation run in part by Dr. Gerald L. Chan SM ’75, SD ’79 a longtime benefactor of the Harvard School of Public Health, pledged $350 million to the school. At the time, it was the largest single donation in Harvard University’s history. In recognition of the gift, the University renamed the school the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in honor of Chan’s late father Mr. Tseng-Hsi Chan, who would often finance the education of local children in his native China. But the senior Chan’s commitment to education was only part of what inspired Dr. Chan and his brothers to make this historic gift.

Tseng-Hsi’s wife Ms. Chan Tan Ching-fen was a nurse in China during the 1940’s and 50’s. Like Dr. Henry Walcott decades before, Ms. Chan was a hygiene and sanitation advocate. She used her skills to administer vaccines to neighborhood children in the family kitchen, using the same needle repeatedly and disinfecting it in boiling water. Dr. Chan’s mother’s devotion to sanitation and vaccination, public health interventions that have raised average lifespans globally, was the other reason why Dr. Chan decided to make a gift to the school where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees. He noted that “…In keeping with my mother’s work in improving people’s health and my father’s commitment to education, my brothers and I thought it most fitting to celebrate their legacy with a gift to Harvard School of Public Health.”

Promoting peoples’ health, educating our communities, and ensuring that healthcare and education are more accessible to all have become more complex propositions over time, especially as we enter the third year of a global pandemic. Today, Michelle A. Williams, SM ’88, ScD ’91, is Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the school’s first female dean and the first black person to head a faculty at Harvard. Dr. Williams has been a staunch advocate not only of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her role as Dean, but also in global availability of the Covid vaccine. She has counseled President Biden that only with a world-wide distribution strategy will the Covid scourge be finally tamed. While daunting, it is achievable and we should look to ground breakers, innovators, and servant leaders like Dr. Williams, Henry Pickering Walcott, and Mr. and Mrs. Chan as we continue to wrestle with what ails us, whether that be in the public health or public policy realms.

Lastly, the Harvard community recently lost one of our time’s great and intrepid minds – American biologist, naturalist, writer, and Harvard Professor E.O. Wilson who passed away on 26 December 2021 at age 92. He was considered the world’s leading authority of ants and their behavior, and his wide accomplishments in the fields of biology and field science earned him the name “Darwin’s natural heir.” Many Harvard College students have fond memories of “The Ant Man” and “Father of Biodiversity.”

First-year students of a certain era remember taking Natural Science 6 (aka the old Biology 1) – Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. About one fifth of the class of 1982 would cram into Science Center B at noon every MWF during the fall semester to hear the avuncular and fascinating Wilson expound upon the evolutionary and societal influences on the great human journey. These were lectures you did not want to miss. One month into the class, we learned that Wilson and Harvard University Press published his seminal work On Human Nature, the last in a triad of books endeavoring to explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior. The following year, the book won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize. He went on to win a second Pulitzer in 1991 for his book “The Ants.”

Edward Osbourne Wilson, born and educated in Alabama, came to Harvard in 1951 to earn his PhD in Biology and then never left. He changed how we thought of biology’s role in the evolution of human culture. And changed the world. Requiescat in pace.

I encourage you to contact me at president@harvardclub.com with your suggestions, concerns, or general remarks.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82

President, Harvard Club of Boston

president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

A century ago this month on 12 December 1921, humanity lost a monumental contributor to the astronomical sciences. Nine years before her death, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a Harvard University astronomer, made a discovery that was to become one of the cornerstones of modern astronomy. Yet Leavitt received little recognition from her peers and contemporaries, and today there is little known about her. There’s not even a plaque to commemorate her name at the Harvard College Observatory where she worked and where her far-reaching discovery occurred. Let’s look at this inspiring woman, whose contributions eclipsed the obstacles of gender and disability in early 20th century Harvard.

Ms. Leavitt was born on July 4, 1868 in Lancaster, MA about 40 miles west of Cambridge. At the age of 20, she entered Radcliffe (then named the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women), and pursued a rigorous curriculum, traversing from philosophy to fine arts, and classical Greek, to analytical geometry and differential calculus. If she had been a man, this would have been sufficient to lead into a career in academia. At that time however, science was essentially an exclusively male undertaking. Hence when Leavitt gained employment in 1893 at the Harvard College Observatory, it was not as an astronomer or junior researcher, but as a lowly “computer” whose job was to catalogue the brightness of stars. This was a painstaking and glamourless process, and Leavitt was paid servant’s wages of 25 cents per hour.

Leavitt worked in a cramped office alongside a number of other highly-educated women relegated to similar routine tasks under the supervision of their boss, Edward Pickering, the Harvard astronomer and physicist who headed the observatory. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, another Harvard “computer” who would later make the revolutionary discovery that the sun was composed largely of hydrogen and helium, wrote that “Pickering chose his staff to work, not to think.”

Even in this non-supportive, thankless environment, Leavitt forged on. Much of her work was with Cepheid variables, a type of star that goes through periods of relative brightness and dimness, of which she personally discovered many new examples. It was during this arduous star data recording and cataloguing that Leavitt learned that she could accurately and consistently relate the period of a given star’s brightness cycle to its absolute magnitude. The discovery of this simple and formerly unknown relationship made it possible, for the first time, to calculate a star’s distance from Earth. Henrietta Swan Leavitt had just become, in the words of George Johnson, author of the book Miss Leavitt’s Stars, “the woman who discovered how to measure the Universe.”

Both Pickering and his successor Harlow Shapley at various points took credit for Leavitt’s discovery. In addition, during her tenure at Harvard, Leavitt suffered numerous illnesses which eventually rendered her deaf. For most of her short career, she endured this disability with stoic resolve. But if not for Henrietta Swan Leavitt, we would not have discovered when we did that the sun is not at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and that the Milky Way is not the center of the Universe. These were 20th century debunked beliefs that harken back to the earth-centric biases of the 16th and 17th century that were upended by the Copernican and Galilean heliocentric models of the universe. You can argue that Leavitt belongs in their pantheon.

One hundred years later, humanity still struggles with biases concerning gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, economic and class circumstances, etc. Our community has formulated a series of Affirmation Statements which serve as guidelines for diversity, equity, and inclusion. We took the lead from Harvard, MIT, BU, and other great institutions. If anything, these affirmations get us thinking in the right way so that the next Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who could be a young woman of color, a transgendered person, or someone not conventional to our presuppositions, will be supported and nurtured, and not ignored or abandoned.

In closing, I would like to thank our members and our employees for their support and loyalty as 2021 comes to close. The year has been successful on several fronts – member and community engagement, financial performance, clubhouse improvements, and our contributions to the HAA and other communities. The pandemic continues to evolve in an unpredictable way. Regardless, we will adapt as needed and remain steadfastly supportive of one another. After the impending Winter Solstice, the light of our days will grow greater, as will our confidence that this scourge will be behind us come the Vernal Equinox.

I encourage you to contact me at president@harvardclub.com with your suggestions, concerns, or general remarks.

Laeti Dies Festi! Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston

president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

As is tradition when we greet November, we look with energetic anticipation to the month’s third Saturday when one of college sports’ oldest and greatest rivalry renews; Harvard – Yale football aka The Game. Because of the pandemic, the classic confrontation did not occur last year making this 137th installment all the more meaningful for the colleges’ athletes and supporting communities.

The first clash of these Ivy antagonists, which Harvard won 4-0, occurred on 13 November 1875 at Hamilton Field in New Haven. After the inaugural game, The Bulldog’s home field would change from year to year and would include Hampden Park in Springfield (sort of a half-way point) and the hallowed Polo Grounds on NYC’s Upper West Side before the Elis settled into the Yale Bowl constructed in 1914. In turn, Harvard’s home games were played at Boston’s South End Grounds (between what is now Columbus Avenue and Ruggles Station), Jarvis Field in Cambridge (bounded by Mass Ave/Everett/Oxford/Jarvis Streets), Soldier’s Field (donated to the University by Harvard Club of Boston’s founder Henry Lee Higginson in 1890, as a memorial to Harvard men who had died in the Civil War), before The Crimson finally landed at Harvard Stadium, constructed on Soldier’s Field in 1903.

There has been no lack of prankish behavior between these ferocious foes. Take the tail (ouch!) of Handsome Dan, a bulldog who serves as the mascot of Yale University's sports teams. In addition to a person wearing a costume, the position is filled by an actual bulldog, the honor (and the title "Handsome Dan") being transferred to another upon death or retirement. We are now at Handsome Dan XXIX but In November 1934, Handsome Dan II was kidnapped by Harvard students (I smell Lampoon!) the day before the Harvard-Yale football game, and Yale students were alarmed at photographs of him happily seated at the foot of the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard, licking the founder’s hamburg-smeared shoes. Not to be outdone in 2004, Yale students costumed as the Harvard pep squad handed out placards to some 1,800 Harvard partisans, with instructions to hold them up after each Harvard score to spell out "GO HARVARD". When raised, however, the cards actually displayed "WE SUCK", to the delight of the Yale students, alumni, and fans across the field.

Of course, Harvard nemesis and needler MIT is the inventor of the most ingenious pranks in all academic ranks. Take the legendary “Great MIT Balloon Hack” during the 1982 Harvard Yale game at The Stadium. A second quarter Harvard score was immediately followed by a large black weather balloon’s emerging near midfield adjacent to the Harvard sideline. "MIT" was proclaimed in painted letters on the slowly inflating balloon until it exploded, spraying powder over a few square yards of the field and a befuddled Crimson team. And again in Harvard Stadium in 2006, MIT students secretly replaced the "VE-RI-TAS" insignia on the scoreboard with "HU-GE-EGO.” Be warned that the last Harvard-Yale game at The Stadium was back in 2016, so our MIT tormentors will have had an uncommon amount of time to come up with a hack for the ages when The Game returns to Soldier’s Field in November 2022.

This year for those of us who cannot make it to New Haven, we will have The Game viewing party here at the Clubhouse on Saturday 20 November beginning at 11:00AM, with kick-off at noon. You may sign-up here and please bring a guest! I look forward to seeing you in your Crimson garb!

Lastly, we would like to recognize and congratulate Harvard Club of Boston member Jay G. Hooper ’84, of Belmont, Massachusetts, one of six alumni who have received the 2021 HAA Award for outstanding service to the University. Jay is class treasurer, and has been president, secretary, and treasurer of the Association of Harvard College Class Secretaries and Treasurers (AHCCS&T). He has co-chaired his 20th, 25th, and 35th class reunions, and participated in numerous HAA initiatives. Thank you, Jay, for all your contributions to our community!

In closing, I would like to thank our members for the continued privilege of serving you. I encourage you to contact me at president@harvardclub.com with your suggestions, concerns, or general remarks.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82, President, Harvard Club of Boston

president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

In my April 2021 President’s Letter, I commented on how the Boston Marathon, traditionally run on Patriot’s Day (the third Monday in April) was moved to Indigenous Peoples’ Day (the second Monday in October) because of the pandemic. Later in the spring, our Club in alliance with the Massachusett Tribe and the HAA Allyship Committee adopted a formal “Land Acknowledgment” statement:

The Harvard Club of Boston is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston. We pay respect to the people of the Massachusett Tribe, past and present, and honor the land itself, which remains sacred to the Massachusett People.

Harvard Club of Boston Land Acknowledgment

This acknowledgment, along with our Mission and Values and our Affirmation statements, are declared at the onset of all HCB Board of Governors meetings, and Club public meetings. These statements all serve as reminders of who we are, where we came from, and the values we represent.

During Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend, our Club community will honor the Massachusett Tribe by unfurling and permanently displaying their flag outside our Commonwealth Avenue entranceway. In the grand scheme of things, it is a small gesture and does nothing to reparate genocide and the serial injustices our great Native Americans have endured for over a half a millennium since Columbus’s late 15th century “discovery.” But the flag does raise awareness of the simple fact that while our beloved Clubhouse was built in 1913, there existed a thriving and sophisticated society well before ours.

We should know that much of the Harvard campus was built on Massachusett tribal land. In fact, a cornerstone of Harvard Yard was the Harvard Indian College (ca. 1655) Harvard's first brick building. It stood east of what is now Johnson Gate, approximately where the Matthews Hall freshman dormitory now stands. The Indian College has been long forgotten and is memorialized by a simple plaque on the Matthews Hall dorm. The Harvard Club of Boston community must do our part in sharing this sacred history and knowledge with contemporaries and those who will come after us.

Some may ask “Why tear down Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples?” It is not our lot nor desire to tear down or diminish some in favor of others. But it is our responsibility to acknowledge injustices, provide support to those who merit or need it, and foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community that we aim to serve. The Harvard Club of Boston, like The University itself, must be that community, that place.

Lastly, while growing up in Watertown, MA, I spent much of my formative years in the adjacent Nonantum neighborhood of Newton, MA. It was and still is a treasured community inhabited by generations of wonderful Italian Americans. Some of my fondest memories as a child and young man were forged with friends in that special neighborhood, including the joy of attending the annual Columbus Day parade. Those memories, special relationships, and sense of community are not voided by acknowledging and supporting our Indigenous brothers and sisters. In the native Massachusett language, Nonantum translates to “place of rejoicing.” With empathy for all and animus toward none, let us rejoice in our sense of place. The Harvard Club of Boston is that place.

Thank you for the privilege of serving our community. I encourage you to contact me at president@harvardclub.com with your suggestions, concerns, or general remarks.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty '82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

Over the past 18 months or since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harvard Club of Boston has made every effort to operate in a way that meets and exceeds public health and safety goals, while maintaining an accessible and vibrant community. As a continuation of that effort, on Monday evening our Board of Governors voted unanimously to establish a “vaccination-safe” program at our Club, which we anticipate beginning in mid-October.

Our HCB Executive Committee and General Manager Steve Cummings have been discussing the possibility of a “vax-safe” program since the City of New York announced theirs the first week of August, and well before the City of Boston invoked a mask mandate. In our discourse with the Board of Governors and other HCB community members (e.g., email exchanges/conversations with members and Harvard University colleagues; other conversations with select employees, our CARES group, event sponsors, select vendors, etc.), we have found our proposed program to be enthusiastically received. The quality of that support helped precipitate our moving forward with a Board vote.

This program will require either a proof of vaccination or a medical/religious exemption from all employees, members, member guests, event sponsors and their guests, vendors, and contractors. Those exempted will be obliged to test negative for COVID 72 hours in advance of visiting our Clubhouse. We foresee that the program will begin in mid-October, which will allow members of our community to appropriately update their vaccination status. In addition, the lead-time will allow us time to develop the appropriate procedures for processing vaccination data in a way that are minimally disruptive to the community.

In the weeks ahead, we will communicate with you the ways and methods to provide vaccination records and other information (for you, guests, and events you may be sponsoring), as well as share general program progress and other updates.

As recently as late June, most all of us believed that the pandemic’s scourge was behind us, opening a new era of relief and rejuvenation. The Delta variant has set all efforts back, but it has not diminished our optimism nor compromised our creativity. We have an important, time-critical opportunity to make our community safer, and we will embrace the best of “vax-safe” standards as already introduced by Harvard, MIT, Berklee, and other institutions both local and national.

The Harvard Club of Boston pledges to be a community that is safe. Our adoption of this vax-safe program is consistent with that affirmation. Thank you in advance for your support which will contribute to the good health and well-being of our Harvard Club community.

Please contact me at president@harvardclub.com, with your thoughts, concerns, and ideas. This is a community effort, and your input will help make it a successful and exemplary endeavor.

Facere ius rerum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82, President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

In honor of MIT: To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

It was 160 years ago (10 April 1861) that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was granted its official charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This was only two days before Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. Within 34 hours, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the inadequately supplied fort. The Civil War had begun, and it would consume a divided nation for the next 4 years.

The idea for MIT originated with William Barton Rogers, MIT’s first president. Rogers was a professor of natural philosophy at the College of William and Mary (our country’s second oldest University) when he described his vision for a “new polytechnic institute” in a letter to his brother Henry in 1846. Rogers campaigned relentlessly for the creation of the Institute, rallying support, and raising funds. In retrospect, it is remarkable that much of the necessary planning and funding transpired throughout the chaos of the Civil War, culminating in the institution’s first classes beginning in February 1865 at Downtown Boston’s Mercantile building on Summer Street.

The emerging university soon moved into a series of three buildings it built in the Back Bay, the first one at the corner of Clarendon and Boylston across from Trinity Church. The Institute finally moved to its historic Cambridge location across the river 105 years ago, during a three-day alumni reunion in June of 1916. This was an extravagant celebration, which included a “telephone banquet” (the early 20th century’s version of a “Zoom call!”), connecting alumni from around the country, along with elaborate pageantry punctuating the dedication of the new campus. “MCMXVI” is carved on the iconic dome sitting atop Building 10, the future favorite site of hacks or ethical pranks from imaginative and inspired student perpetrators for the amusement of us all.

The Boston to Cambridge relocation was engineered under the watch of Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, MIT’s president from 1909 until his death in 1920. Maclaurin was born in Scotland, raised in New Zealand, and educated in England at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a BA in mathematics in 1895, an MA in Mathematics in 1896, and a degree in law in 1898. He was a true polymath and considered an expert on two remarkably different subjects - physics and law. His career as president of MIT was distinguished by his leadership overseeing the 1916 Boston to Cambridge move, and by maintaining efficient operations during the disruptions of World War I and the 1918 Flu Pandemic.

It was under Maclaurin’s reign that the beaver was chosen as MIT’s mascot during a formal dinner at the Technology Club of NYC in 1914. During the presentation, it was affirmed that “…of all the animals of the world, the beaver is noted for his engineering and mechanical skill and habits of industry. His habits are nocturnal, he does his best work in the dark.” Indeed! Please see the MIT’s history of hacks above!

Early in its history, MIT established itself as a progressive and inclusive community. Ellen Henrietta Swallow was the first woman to graduate from MIT, earning a degree in chemistry in 1873 before becoming a faculty member and an advocate for healthful living conditions through the application of science. The first woman to graduate from Harvard, Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson, earned her degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1922 and went on to advocate for intellectually disabled children in her native Australia.

Furthermore, Robert Robinson Taylor is recognized as the first African American graduate of MIT. Taylor attended MIT from 1888 to 1892, graduating with a degree in architecture. Taylor went on to become professor at the Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the bulk of his career. Across town, the first Harvard College A.B. was awarded to Richard T. Greener in 1870. He went on to become a philosophy professor at the University of South Carolina, and law school dean at Howard University.

One of the best-known public events hosted by MIT was the “Mid-Century Convocation,” a symposium held at the old Boston Garden on 31 March 1949 to reflect upon the post-war world and the role of science and technology. More than 13,000 people waited for keynote speaker Winston Churchill, and the former and future British prime minister did not disappoint. Churchill gave a well-received and sweeping speech that delved into 50 years of global history. The address was delivered during the Berlin Airlift crisis and was Churchill’s most important since the Iron Curtain speech three years earlier. One of the 20th century’s greatest leaders and statesmen coyly noted that “I have no technical and no university education, and have just had to pick up a few things as I went along,” Churchill took an optimistic view of science’s potential to address existential problems e.g., hunger and disease. President Truman, scheduled to speak the following night, declined at the last minute, some say because he did not wish to follow the renowned speaker. Who could blame Harry!

So here we are today, 160 years after MIT founding where our country has lost to a virus the same number of lives claimed in the entire Civil War. The Covid Delta Variant is presenting itself as an unexpected and formidable challenge as we desperately try to make our way out of a devasting pandemic. For our Harvard Club of Boston community, it may mean a return to mask-wearing or other mandates. We will follow the science and act in a way which places health and well-being first. Groundbreakers, innovators, and iconoclasts like Rogers, Swallow, Taylor, Maclaurin, Churchill, et. al. all recognized the potential that science, technology, and the scientific method can bring to humankind. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and all the other Universities of excellence which comprise the Harvard community will continue to lead the way so that others may follow the science our forebears all so avidly fostered and pursued.

Mens et manus. Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82, President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

A year ago, I wrote optimistically that during the summer of 2020 we would start to meet again in our newly re-opened Back Bay Clubhouse (President’s Letter – July 2020). That did not come to pass…not even close. In fact, the pandemic surged. We lost many loved ones and continued to grapple with a tripartite challenge unlike anything we had seen before, i.e. a global health care crisis, a deep and sudden dislocated economy, and a reckoning of social injustice. In addition, Harvard University, MIT, BU, The College of the Holy Cross, and all other academic institutions near and far continued a time of exile where students not only matriculated virtually, but also graduated so. This was not what we wanted for our children, grandchildren, friends, and family, but these students’ (high-school, college, and professional schools) adaptability, grace, and aplomb serve as great examples to us all.

And now finally, that time of exile has subsided to the point where we may now exhale. Indeed, Harvard is planning full, in-person classes for the fall, with students’ returning to live on-campus. That means full houses in the Yard, on the River, and yes even up the Quad (my former home)! Boston will bustle in October with a first ever Boston Marathon in the fall (on Indigenous Peoples’ Day Monday the 11th), and the return of The Head of the Charles, the world’s premier and prolific rowing event on the 22nd to the 24th. Let’s hope our kitchen can keep us with the Harvard Varsity rowers’ legendary buffet table appetites!

In the more immediate future, our community has two July events planned for those close to Boston or who are planning to visit the area. On Tuesday 13 July at 6:00PM ET, we will have our first Cocktail 374 community gathering since February 2020. Enjoy the food and drink knowing that for this special evening, we have insured Harvard Hall’s platinum chandeliers; we anticipate many members swinging from them. And on Thursday 22 July, we will be at Community Rowing Inc’s Harry Parker Boathouse (in Brighton, just upstream from Weld and Newall) for a Harvard Club Summer BBQ. We are honored to support CRI, as we share common ground with their mission and values. If you so choose, rowing begins at 4:30PM, and then the eating, drinking, and games at 5:30PM. We congratulate the fete’s organizers for the proper sequencing of these two activities; I’ve tried it the other way, and it did not end well!

While July is mostly recognized for vacation and relaxation, let’s not forget that this year’s July 4th Independence Day merits uncommon gratitude, reflection, and intention. We are grateful for our nation’s healthcare professionals who at great personal sacrifice delivered our nation a vaccine, as well as hope, and optimism via science and reason. We reflect on these past tragic 18 months. Over 620 thousand in our United States have perished in a merciless pandemic, with millions dead around the globe. And millions more are still dealing with the consequences. Businesses have been destroyed, and jobs lost that will never come back. Relationships have been subject to unimaginable strain. Institutions were stretched to their breaking points. Yet here we are today, as individuals and communities, with renewed intention as we consider what is important to us, what can be discarded, and what is worth saving.

Democracy itself is atop this last category. The deplorable events of January 6th make us grateful we survived an unimaginable insurgence, compel us to reflect on how close we came to destroying our 245 year old experiment, and lastly form our intention on never allowing such a desecration to occur again. If we have learned anything over this past year and a half, it is that life is as fragile as it is unpredictable and must never be taken for granted. Democracy too fits this paradigm. We should be proud that while we were fiercely tested, our nation bended but did not break.

For now, injustice, bias, and falsehoods folded to justice, fairness, and truth. With all its imperfections, The Great American Experiment remains the best system of governance we have. And in 2021 as we celebrate our nation’s Independence, the lab is still open. And may it remain so evermore.

Happy Independence Day. Semper Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

Congratulations to the Class of ’21 and their families from Harvard, MIT, BU, Holy Cross, Fletcher, Yale, Northeastern, BC, Simmons, and all of our great local institutions. In addition, our admiration and respect pour out to all High School students and their families throughout the land who managed tribulation and tragedy on their way to a joyous goal. Class of ’21 Forever!

Closer to home, the Club’s Board of Governors and Executive Management are delighted that on June 1 we welcome our membership to a Clubhouse which now delivers most all member and guest services to their pre-Covid levels. Please be familiar with the Clubhouse’s new protocols, and kudos to our Harvard Club of Boston staff who have made this inception date (originally set as August 22 by the City of Boston!) possible under accelerated circumstances.

As uplifting June 1, 2021 is to our community, the date marks the 100th anniversary of an unfathomable act of terror - The Tulsa Massacre, where white US citizens inflicted senseless violence, death, and destruction on their black brethren. Equally incomprehensible is how little is known and taught about one of our country’s darkest events. On Thursday June 3 at 6:00PM ET, our Club is proud to host HBS Professor Mihir Desai who will present his case study The Tulsa Massacre--Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later? We encourage you to make time to attend this virtual event.

We also want to make our members aware of another installment of our Allyship Series in co-sponsor ship with the Harvard Club of Ireland. On Wednesday June 2 at 6:00PM ET we will present Allyship- People with Disabilities, A Conversation with Brooke Ellison ’00, MPA ’04. The inspirational Ms. Ellison, an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University, will speak to the challenges and obstacles facing citizens with disabilities and how organizations must change our ways of thinking when it comes to underlying biases towards this underserved community. We all know and love people who must manage disabilities in a society that generally has little tolerance for them. As the nephew and brother-in-law of two beloved family members with Down Syndrome, I’m keen to learn more about how the popular concept of “inclusivity” must encompass people with disabilities.

It is not often that Memorial Day falls on the last day of May. I find it particularly fitting this year that the day we honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our great nation transitions us to Pride Month in the US. We celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride to commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall Inn riots, recognized as the catalyst for the gay rights movement in America. In the spirit of Pride Month, please refer to this Allyship event recording from November 2020 where American Educator and LGBTQIA+ leader Kevin Jennings ‘85 guides us on how to be a better ally.

Lastly, when we contemplate those who died defending our great democracy, we should consider how many of them, our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, friends and family, were gay. While our cemeteries make no distinction on sexual preference, I am confident in asserting that their aggregate is exponentially greater than the number of those so-called “patriots” who desecrated our nation’s Capitol on January 6th. Let us honor our true patriots, and never forget those who gave their full measure so that Pride, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity can be cherished and celebrated now and forever more.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

We hope you were able to attend “virtually” our 113th Annual Meeting on Thursday 29 April 2021.  The featured part of the program was a masterful interview of Harvard University President Larry Bacow MIT ’72, MPP-JD ’76, PhD ’78 by our own Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine ’92, HKS ’96.  We’re grateful to both of them for their support of our Club community.  You may view the entire proceedings here.  Due to the pandemic’s restrictions, this was our second consecutive, exclusively online Annual Meeting, and we hope the last.  For our 114th Annual Meeting twelve months hence, our goal will be to have the governance portion a hybrid proceeding (you may participate online, or in-person at the Club) to be followed by a gang-buster, in-person Annual Meeting celebration in Harvard Hall!           

Because we did not focus on the “reporting” aspect of the governance part of the meeting, we will have an online Member Forum on 4 May 2021 at 6:00PM ET where our GM Steve Cummings and our six-member Executive Committee will answer any questions or address shared comments regarding this past year and the Club’s future.  You may register here, but rest assured there will be other such forums in the weeks and months to come.  In addition, we encourage you to review the HCB Annual Report 2020-2021, especially the first 20 pages which really capture what we have done over this past year, and what we endeavor for our future. 

Part of this future is how our Club manages its art and memorabilia. Thanks to Club resident historian Mike Shanahan, House Committee Chair Marcus DeFlorimonte, Asst. GM Roger Schofield, and Membership & Marketing Manager Jocelyn Sector, the Club has organized an auction to benefit the Higginson 1908 Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity which supports art and the historical elements of the Harvard Club of Boston.   Note that the auction represents surplus artwork and memorabilia, which are primarily of sentimental value culled from our archives.  The proceeds will support restoration, display upgrades, and acquisition of art for the Clubhouse along with historical capital restoration projects.   Please know that great Club treasures or traditional objects are not part of the auction.  Those stay safe and sound with the Club, as they are part of our identity and community 

Lastly, we all can and do cherish the principles of identity, community, and home.  When I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, my home of Watertown, MA was fortunate to have (and still does!) one of the most populous Armenian communities in the United States (second only to Fresno, CA/Los Angeles county area).  Tragically, most all of my Armenian classmates at Watertown High School had grandparents or other relatives who were either killed in or escaped from the Armenian Genocide of 1915.  While Watertown was now their home, our Armenian friends and families had left an intrinsic part of their identity and community in their country of origin.  The survivors who did leave did so not on volition, but too flee atrocity.    

My classmates always referred to what had befallen their families as a genocide, but I soon realized over time that it generally was not recognized as such.  Finally after so many failed and empty promises from administrations past, this past 24 April 2021 on the 106th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, a US President officially acknowledged the tragedy for what it truly is - a genocide.  President Biden’s proclamation was not a joyous one. Rather, it was a sobering step toward accountability and justice for the Armenians killed at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in the first genocide in the 20th century, Armenians whose descended families are now our neighbors, colleagues, friends, and loved ones.  

Acknowledgement statements such as these are not uttered to raise up one community at the expense of another. They are not assertions of blame.  Rather, they are recognition of injustices that merit awareness, support, and our Allyship so that instances of humankind’s inhumanity are not repeated.  From Watertown to Armenia’s capitol Yerevan, The Harvard Club of Boston stands in Allyship with the Armenian community. 

Donec iterum, Veritas.  

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

The first day of April marks an important time on the Harvard calendar as Harvard Alumni Association elections officially get under way. The HAA community has until Tuesday 18 May to make sure their voices are heard by voting for Harvard Overseers and HAA Elected Directors. Now is a good time to consider those alumni leaders who should influence Harvard’s future direction presently and in the years to come.

The opportunity for alumni to elect all members of a University’s governing board is unique to only a few institutions. As special as our position is to have a significant and positive impact on Harvard’s future, a mere 15% of alumni opt to vote each spring. We can and must do better! In that spirit, please get engaged by reviewing the HAA elections website and FAQ. In addition, Amelia Muller AB ’11, MUP ’20 and Sid Espinosa MPP ’00, members of the alumni-led nominating committee, offer their perspectives on why it’s so important for alumni to vote. I encourage you to watch their short video and share it as you see fit.

Spring is starting to emerge, and soon Commonwealth Avenue will be in full and beautiful bloom. But alas, the Boston Marathon will not traverse in parallel to our doorsteps’ grand mall in April, but will be deferred until October. So instead of running through the remnants of the Avenue’s elm trees’ discarded flowers on Patriots Day, the athletes will crunch through the colorful and fallen elm leaves on Columbus Day. What’s most important however, is that the race will take place and run past our Clubhouse like it has since 1913 when our Back Bay Clubhouse opened.

Like last year, as we near the Columbus Day holiday in Boston and elsewhere, the conversation will turn towards replacing the second Monday in October with Indigenous Peoples Day. Why is this important? Well for starters, this discussion is more than a simple name change; it is a refusal to allow the genocide of millions of Indigenous peoples to go unnoticed, and it is a demand for recognition of Indigenous humanity. Recognizing this day in place of what’s currently known as “Columbus Day” is a way to correct false histories, honor Indigenous peoples, and begin to correct some of the countless wrongs committed against Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (what is now known as the Americas).

Before becoming more aware of Indigenous and First Nation peoples as a result of the Harvard Clubs of Boston and Ireland’s HAA Allyship event last month, I possessed an unchallenged belief that Columbus Day was an historical occasion marking the explorer’s “discovery” of America. But please consider the reality: Columbus didn’t discover anything. Instead, he stumbled upon thousands of different Indigenous groups with complex societies and systems. One cannot “discover” lands that are already inhabited, and I would like the Harvard Club of Boston to support setting the historical record straight in order to respect the culture, language and traditional lifestyles of the Indigenous ancestors who existed long before Columbus’ voyage. I will have more things to say on this topic in the coming weeks, and in the meantime ask that our members continue promoting Allyship in all groups, in particular the Black Lives, Asian-American, and Indigenous Peoples communities who need our support and advocacy more than ever.

Our work continues and now with the Vernal Equinox passed and the Summer Solstice beckoning, every day we become a stronger and more resolute Club community. Great days await us, and we remain grateful to all of you who have made our weathering these challenging times entirely possible.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

In March of 1971, Harvard University Press published one of the most influential works in American political thought, John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (known in academia as TJ). He is considered by many to be the most important political philosopher of the 20th century.

Professor Rawls (1921 – 2002) received his BA from Princeton and PhD from Harvard and joined The University in 1962, where he spent the following four decades of his life and career. He was appointed the James B. Conant University Professor at Harvard in 1979. University professors hold Harvard’s highest professorial posts. These distinguished and special endowed positions were established in 1935 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for “individuals of distinction … working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as to cross the conventional boundaries of the specialties.” Indeed, Rawls transcended the boundaries of politics, philosophy, and social equality.

John Rawls and TJ hold a special meaning for me. As a College junior, I along with scores of other undergraduates (and some grad students) piled into Emerson Room 105 and took Philosophy 171 Modern Political Philosophy with the rock star Professor. This is a contradictory description of the man for while he was much accomplished, and widely admired and lauded, he was a most thoughtful, gentle and modest man, famous for making time for all students of philosophy, whether a novice undergraduate or hardened PhD candidate.

It was during this semester that I learned of Rawls's theory of "justice as fairness" which advocates equal basic rights, equality of opportunity, and promoting the interests of the least advantaged members of society. In his argument, Rawls framed a thought experiment where citizens making choices about their society are asked to make them from an "original position" of equality behind a "veil of ignorance,” without knowing what gender, race, abilities, tastes, wealth, or position in society they will have. Rawls claims this will cause these citizens to choose "fair" policies. Forty years later, this idea of considering an original position of fairness remains, although met not nearly enough, one of my life’s guiding principles.

Over these past several months, I have had the revelation that John Rawls was positing the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion a half-century before they became prevalently part of our language! But Rawls’ views were not without critics, including his more colorful colleague in Emerson Hall Robert Nozick, who in 1974 penned Anarchy, State and Utopia, a libertarian response to Rawls’ liberalism. And even Rawls’ apologists recognized that for all of his academic and judicial fame (The SCOTUS has quoted from TJ over time), his influence had little if any impact on actual politics. Perhaps someone out there knows whether or not North Cambridge’s Tip O’Neil and Harvard Yard’s Professor Rawls ever met?

The apparent lack of political influence may have disappointed Rawls. He was a veteran of some of the worst fighting in the Pacific theatre in World War II, and when he developed his ideas after the war and in the turbulence of the 1960s, one of his aims was to find a way to contain political violence. He wrote that it was one of the purposes of political philosophy in general to temper political fanaticism, to help explain why our political institutions, imperfect as they may be, are not entirely arbitrary or uniformly oppressive. As we navigate through the turbulent wake of January 6th, it’s good for us to take pause to consider that we are struggling with many of the same social issues today as we did a half century or so ago.

But fifty years after TJ’s publication and in the centennial year of his birth, Rawls would be heartened knowing that Danielle Allen, an African American woman born in the year of TJ’s publication, with a BA from Princeton and a PhD from Harvard is today’s the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. Professor Allen too is a faculty rock star, and one of The University’s best and brightest, as demonstrated by her work as Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Like her predecessor, she is recognized for scholarly work on justice and citizenship. It could be that Professor Allen will be one to bridge the academic/political chasm that Rawls’s acolytes found so lamentable; she recently announced that she is exploring a candidacy for Massachusetts Governor in 2022. Rawls’s justice as fairness embodies an ideal for equity that all citizens are to carry forward. That’s more important than ever today, and his successors now lead the way.

Lastly and on a much different note, in March we will have more news regarding our partnership with Trinity Financial and our potential development of the Newbury Street building and parking lot. If you have any questions or comments, let me know. This is your Club! Enjoy the spring and the impending Vernal Equinox!

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

We hope that our local members have been able to avail themselves of our on-site Covid testing offering since the program began in January. The Club has thirty-five testing slots each Thursday, and we encourage you to take advantage of the service. The testing process is well-organized and takes 5 minutes from the time you park gratis in back and enter the Club, to when the gentle swabbing is complete. You may sign-up as you would any other Club event by going to our website’s Club Calendar, or alternatively by contacting us at covidtesting@harvardclub.com or by calling 617-450-8493 and leaving a message with the date and time you’d like the test.

As you make your way through the corridor that connects our back entrance to the Harvard Hall foyer, you will notice that our Covenant documents – our Mission, Values, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Affirmations – now grace the hallway’s wall. These values constitute a foundational bond that our entire community shares. These affirmations shall act as guiding principles for us into the decades ahead as we build a stronger, more inclusive community, and one truly reflective of Harvard in the 21st century.

Moreover, let us not forget that inclusivity encompasses accessibility. We have a part of our Clubhouse (often referred to as the Athletic wing, as this is where our squash courts and locker rooms are located, along with significant empty and underutilized space) which was built in 1924, and since then we have done not a thing to make it accessible to all. This was one of the driving reasons to consider partnering with a developer to reimagine the building, the parking lot, and our Club.

I could not be more pleased with the developer we chose – Trinity Financial. Since we started our feasibility studies in July 2019 and now continuing throughout the pandemic, Trinity has remained enthusiastic, steadfast, and focused on the due-diligence process necessary before our Club leadership can render an informed decision on whether or not to sign a development agreement. Many other developers/partners would not have had the wherewithal to manage the proposal’s inherent complexities through the pandemic, but Trinity has demonstrated to us that they are as strong and engaged as ever. We remain excited and energized by the prospect of this partnership, and we hope soon to have news to share.

On the digital programming front, our Club has another Allyship Series event slated for Wednesday 24 February 2021. A superb panel of four leaders and experts in their fields will relate the incredible story of the relationship between the people of Ireland and the Indigenous Peoples of North America—especially the Choctaw, Navajo, and Hopi people. The HCB will co-host with the Harvard Club of Ireland, and presently we have over thirty co-sponsoring Harvard Clubs and Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) from around the globe. Please go to our website to register, and navigate to this link to learn more about how the Navajo and Hopi families are managing through the pandemic.

As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, and concerns. And as of 1 February, only 48 days until the Vernal Equinox!

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com

To My Fellow Harvard Club of Boston Members,

Never in our collective lifetimes have we been so relieved to escape a miserable, annus horribilis like 2020. Our weary eyes look to the relief that 2021 will offer us. However, these first few months may be the most difficult of the entire calamity. Let’s resolve to act with the greater good and the entirety of our community in mind, particularly over the 80 days from when we enter the New Year through to the Vernal Equinox on March 20th. As springtime emerges so too will we, having survived an unimaginable journey. One of the greatest poems in the English language, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally published in 1798), tells of a “bright-eyed Mariner” and this sailor’s own calamitous journey.

It is a tale structured in many ways like the Odysseus myth, where the protagonist departs from a relatively normal life, enters the abyss of the unknown, makes egregious errors in judgement, endures successive trials, some of them redemptive, and eventually returns home, having been profoundly altered. In our own 21st century epic, the coronavirus pandemic, it is not any one individual but our entire civilization which has been transformed.

The poem is the Mariner’s telling of his tale to a passing wedding guest who is as compelled to hear it as the sailor is condemned to repeat it. The poem ends with Coleridge’s unforgettable concluding stanza:

He went like one that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn.

This agonizing pandemic, this phantasmagoric journey, will leave us stricken with loss, grief, and sadness. These tribulations and our hard-earned wisdom constitute a new and cherished common ground we are now obliged to share. We have seen this connectedness in our Harvard Club of Boston community in the manner we have supported our employees, our members, and our neighbors during the Covid scourge. Our shared odyssey has bound us together when it could have torn us asunder. Take pride, solace, and a bit of joy in that, and in the New Year ahead and its unlimited possibilities.

Best wishes for a healthy, happy and safe Annus Mirabilis.

Donec iterum, Veritas.

Matt Hegarty ‘82 President, Harvard Club of Boston president@harvardclub.com