“Our John Harvard”

During its 150th-anniversary celebration in December, the Harvard Club of New York unveiled Everett Raymond Kinstler’s portrait of John P. (Jack) Reardon Jr. ’60. In accompanying remarks, club president Charles L. Brock, J.D. ’67, AMP ’79, a past HAA president, cited the highlights of Reardon’s formal University service: director of undergraduate admissions, of athletics, and of the Harvard Alumni Association. (He also served on the club’s board, and is a Harvard Medalist.) Brock then turned to address the man he called “our Jack of all trades. Our ace of Harvard clubs. Our king of countless Crimson hearts.” Reardon’s “rare wisdom, wit, and warmth” have been deployed as he has “counseled and cajoled presidents and provosts” and other members of the Harvard community. But more important, Brock said, Reardon is “the kind of person so many of us aspire to be,” at the core of Harvard as a human institution: “Jack, you are our John Harvard.”