Derek Bok is the 300th Anniversary University Research Professor, president emeritus of Harvard University and a former dean of Harvard Law School.
A graduate of the Harvard Law School Class of 1954, Bok began his teaching career at Harvard Law School in 1958. A decade later, in 1968, he was appointed dean of the school, succeeding Dean Erwin Griswold, who became the Solicitor General of the United States.
In 1971, Bok was named the 25th president of Harvard University, a position he held for two decades, until 1991.
In July 2006, Bok returned to Harvard as interim president following Lawrence Summers’ resignation, serving until Drew Gilpin Faust took over as president on July 1, 2007.
He has written nine books on higher education: “Beyond the Ivory Tower,” “Higher Education in America,” “Universities and the Future of America,” “The Shape of the River,” “Universities in the Marketplace,” “Higher Expectations: Can Colleges Teach Students What They Need to Know in the 21st Century,” “Our Underachieving Colleges,” “The Struggle to reform our colleges,” and “Attacking the Elites: What Critics Get Wrong—and Right—About America’s Leading Universities.”
His research interests include the state of higher education, and a project sponsored by several foundations on the adequacy of the U.S. government in coping with the nation’s domestic problems. His books on this subject include, “The State of the Nation” and “The Trouble with Government.”
In addition to his law degree from Harvard, he holds an A.B. from Stanford University and an A.M. in economics from George Washington University.