Harvard Business School perspective on the 375th anniversary gala

A dispatch from the Business School's anniversary celebration

Students from the Harvard Business School (HBS) party on despite the rain. The HBS contingent in the parade carried replicas of the centennial bell from that school's 2008 anniversary.
An Business School banner for the celebration
A Baker Library hat
The briefcases and bells carried by HBS parade participants

After marking 100 years “in business” with its own centennial celebration three years ago, Harvard Business School (HBS) was well prepared to help celebrate Harvard’s 375th birthday on October 14. Members of the HBS community gathered to decorate themselves with Harvard-themed flair. In 2008, there was a neoclassical replica cake of the iconic Baker Library; this year, when HBS affiliates walked across the Weeks Footbridge to take part in the University parade, they wore top hats adorned with images of campus buildings, Baker Library among them. In addition to their Lady Gaga-worthy headwear, the procession (led by a student dressed as a 1920s-era George Baker himself) also carried banners, miniature centennial bells, glow sticks, and briefcases emblazoned with the HBS crest on one side and wrapped to look like birthday presents on the other. Making their way through the rain toward Wadsworth Gate, they joined the other graduate-school processions prior to entering Harvard Yard for the main event.

I walked with my husband, a current student, and Dean Nitin Nohria, who showed the ultimate act of chivalry by going without cover in the pouring rain so that his wife could stay dry under their umbrella. After the warmth and hospitality of the celebratory dinner in the formal dining room of Spangler Center, the rain threatened to put a damper on things. But because Dean Nohria was not showing any signs of complaint, neither did we. Once the group arrived for the parade, it was a struggle to stay together in the rain and the crowd. Luckily the replica centennial bells we carried were functional as well as factually accurate (the miniature casts had been made by the same Russian forge that created the original Centennial Bell for the school’s campus) and could be heard from a distance. Time is money—and true to form, the members of the business school did not want to waste time losing track of each other!

Students enrolled in a graduate program that lasts only two years can easily overlook the magnitude of their school’s history. So when celebrating Harvard’s 375th anniversary, it was especially poignant for the members of the professional-school community to reflect on the legacy they have now become part of, after their relatively short time at the American school that has been around the longest of them all.

Kate Dempsey Stouffer is Harvard Magazine's office manager.

Read more articles by Kate Dempsey St...

You might also like

In Sermon, Garber Urges Harvard Community to ‘Defend and Protect’ Institutions

Harvard’s president uses traditional Memorial Church address to encourage divergent views.

Highlights from Harvard’s Past

The Medical School goes coed, University poet wins Nobel Prize. 

Snapshots of Harvard History | Summer 2025

Including profundity and pretzels

Most popular

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Free Speech, the Bomb—and Donald Trump

A Harvard cardiologist on the unlikely alliances that shaped a global movement to prevent nuclear war

Explore More From Current Issue

Illustrated world map showing people connected across countries with icons for ideas, research, and communication.

Why Harvard Needs International Students

An ed school professor on why global challenges demand global experiences

Whimsical illustration of students rushing through ornate campus gate from bus marked “Welcome New Students.”

Highlights from Harvard’s Past

The Medical School goes coed, University poet wins Nobel Prize. 

Brandon Terry, wearing a blue suit, standing before The Embrace, a large bronze sculpture of intertwined arms in Boston Common.

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress