Harvard chief quitting - Helped boost endowment

The heavyweight champion of university fundraisers is stepping down as president of America’s most prestigious school, effective in June 2001.

Neil Rudenstine, 65, led a capital campaign at Harvard University that raised $2.6 billion, the most ever for a university, the Wall Street Journal reports.

That campaign, which raised money from 175,000 people, took six years, generating an average of more than $1 million a day, The New York Times reports.

Many attribute Rudenstine’s success at persuading donors to dig deeper into their own pockets to his earnest commitment to Harvard’s academic future, the Times says.

During his 10-year tenure, Harvard’s endowment has grown to about $15 billion, the Journal says.

Rudenstine’s hard work also took its toll, the newspaper says, noting that in 1994 he took a three-month leave of absence, citing exhaustion.