Fred Glimp, a Harvard Legend, Dies at 91

The long-serving dean and vice president was a proud member of the College’s “Great Middle Class.”

Fred Glimp in Massachusetts Hall, 1996

Photograph by Jim Harrison

To read “Glimpses of a Harvard Half-Century,” David McClintick’s full interview with Fred Glimp, click here.

Idaho high-school graduate Fred Glimp was serving in the Army Air Corps in Germany after World War II when he decided to “take a whack at Harvard” under the GI Bill. “I didn’t think I’d get in,” he told journalist David McClintick ’62 in an interview for this magazine in 1997. He did.

Glimp, who died on June 5, graduated with the “Great Middle Class” of 1950, joined the College admissions staff in 1954 and became dean of admissions and financial aid and later dean of the College, and then, after a decade in charge of the Boston Foundation, returned to Harvard in 1978 as vice president for alumni affairs and development. Despite his formal retirement in 1996, he remained a visible and beloved figure at the University and among alumni. In one highlight, he helped his classmates surpass their own reunion slogan, “50 for ’50,” during a Harvard campaign when their fiftieth-reunion gift of $50,119,037—and gift-participation rate—both broke records.

At the time, that total was almost $20 million more than any gift by any reunion class in Harvard history. But the participation-rate record more accurately reflected Glimp’s deeper legacy to Harvard. With his open and unassuming manner, he was, above all, the friendly face of an intimidating place for thousands of high-school seniors and incoming freshmen. As McClintick wrote: “[T]he Westerners whom Fred recruited in the ’50s and ’60s helped transform the Harvard College student body from a group whose majority came from private preparatory schools in New England and the middle Atlantic states to a group more representative of schools of all types across the country. As a senior admissions officer, Fred played a critical role in bringing about that change, as well as in opening Harvard fully to women and minorities.”

 

Read The Boston Globe obituary.

You might also like

Nieman Foundation Names Henry Chu as Interim Curator

Veteran LA Times journalist calls attention to press freedom

Harvard Can Continue Hosting International Students, Judge Says

Trump hints at a possible settlement with the University.

When Code Meets Canvas

In brushstrokes and bytes, a symposium at Harvard explores data, perception, and art.

Most popular

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

Harvard Plans Contingencies for International Students

The Kennedy School and School of Public Health are developing online options.

The Standoff: Harvard’s Future in the Balance

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes.

Explore More From Current Issue

David Leo Rice on 'The Berlin Wall'

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Garber, Trump, and the Fight for Harvard’s Future

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes.