‘To serve higher education’

Larry Bacow in his Loeb House office on the first day of his presidency in July 2018. Harvard file photo

June 20, 2023 6 min read

Five years of Bacow’s leadership, in pictures

When Larry Bacow took office as Harvard’s 29th president in 2018 he vowed to be a champion for higher education and public service. Five years later, as he prepares to step down, we look back at a tenure marked by the profound challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, a reckoning with the University’s legacies of slavery, and ambitious initiatives in quantum, climate, and AI.

“I really see this as an opportunity to not just serve Harvard, but at this particular moment in time, to serve higher education,” said Bacow in February 2018 after his selection as Harvard’s 29th president was announced at the Barker Center.

File photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Walking past Loeb House on his first day on the job.

Harvard file photo

In one of his first public events as president, Bacow celebrated the public service of Harvard students and alumni. The summer 2018 gathering took place at Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow met with students in the Yard before running with them — a tradition he continued from his time as Tufts president.

Harvard file photo

After speaking at the first Morning Prayers of his presidency, Bacow greeted Florence Ladd, retired director of Radcliffe Bunting Institute, and other attendees as they left Memorial Church.

Harvard file photo

With his wife, Adele, Bacow mingled with students Trey Sexton (right) and Annie Miall during Crimson Jam, a concert in Harvard Yard.

Harvard file photo

In fall 2018, Bacow visited his hometown of Pontiac, Michigan, to promote investment in the city and make the case for the importance of higher education. Here he’s pictured walking the grounds of one of his former schools with his wife and addressing students at International Technical Academy, a K-12 STEM school.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Bacows at the new president’s inauguration in October 2018 in Tercentenary Theatre.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow tapped friend and rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz (right) to deliver the benediction at his inauguration.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a 2019 trip that included remarks at Peking University on the importance of academic freedom.

Andrea Verdelli/Pool Photo via AP

Celebrating with fans at the Harvard-Yale football game at Fenway Park.

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Performing the poem “Casey at the Bat” accompanied by the Harvard Pops Orchestra during the 2019 Arts First festival.

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the 2019 Commencement speaker, to Massachusetts Hall.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The president led the procession to Morning Exercises in Tercentenary Theatre for Harvard’s 368th Commencement.

File photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

At the annual Cambridge Senior Luncheon, Bacow and senior citizens met for an afternoon of dining, dancing, and socializing in the Yard.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Big Bird and Bacow shared the stage at an October 2019 event marking the 50-year anniversary of Sesame Street and the Harvard partnership that helped create it.

Harvard file photo

The Graduate School of Education kicked off its centennial celebration in January 2020.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The president and deans addressed the Class of 2021 during its virtual Commencement ceremony.

File photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographers

When Harvard unveiled a fleet of electric buses in October 2021, Bacow described the campus as a “living laboratory where we can both experiment and demonstrate best practices.”

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow congratulated Rubén Blades as the musician, actor, and politician received the 2022 Harvard Arts Medal. That same month, Bacow joined Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Prairie View A&M University President Ruth Simmons at a conference examining the Legacy of Slavery report. The report documents both the history of slavery on campus and how wealth derived from the practice provided critical support for the University’s rise to prominence in the decades before the Civil War.

File photos by Jon Chase and Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

In 2022, the community again gathered in person to celebrate Commencement. Pusey Minister Matthew Potts (from left), Associate Minister and Director of Administration at Memorial Church Alanna Sullivan, and Bacow looked out from the stage before Baccalaureate Services in Tercentenary Theatre.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

With Gen. Mark A. Milley at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony for the Class of 2022.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences and incoming president Claudine Gay (from left), Bacow, and Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, the 2022 Commencement speaker.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Dental School Dean William Giannobile photographed Bacow with students during Commencement for the Classes of 2020 and 2021.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Deans Claudine Gay and Rakesh Khurana, along with the Bacows, posed with Jude Stafford ’26 of Kansas during Move-In Day 2022.

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

At the September 2022 launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Bacow said the center would give us “the opportunity to educate the next generation of students — and they are going to teach us.”

File photo by John Deputy

When Londorf, Germany, unveiled a Holocaust memorial in September, Bacow and other descendants of Jewish citizens from the village attended. Bacow’s mother, Ruth Wertheim, survived three years in Nazi concentration camps.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow congratulated basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he received one of the seven W.E.B. Du Bois Medals awarded in 2022. The medal is the highest honor given by Harvard in the field of African and African American Studies.

File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Bacows met Catherine, the Princess of Wales, during the royal’s visit to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow visited the University of Jordan in Amman in March of this year as part of a trip that also took him to Israel and the West Bank.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Also in March, Bacow traveled to Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Haifa, Mount Carmel Campus, where he was pictured with Haifa President Ron Robin.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow toured Al-Quds University, a Palestinian university in Abu Dis, and addressed alumni in Ramallah in the West Bank.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Bacow in Massachusetts Hall during a Harvard visit in April 2023 at which he spoke about nuclear threats facing his country.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Bacow engaged in a virtual talk with U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry during a week of climate action events hosted by the Salata Institute in May.

File photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

The president and president-elect during Commencement 2023 festivities.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Bacows and their grandchildren enjoy one last Commencement with Larry at the helm.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer