John Harvard (clergyman)
John Harvard (1607–1638) was an English dissenting minister in colonial New England whose deathbed[2] bequest to the "schoale or colledge" founded two years earlier by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that it was consequently ordered "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to be built at Cambridge shalbee called Harvard Colledge."[3] John Harvard was born in Southwark, England. A graduate of Emmanuel College of the University of Cambridge, he emigrated to New England in 1637. Harvard University considers him the most honored of its founders—those whose efforts and contributions in its early days "ensure[d] its permanence"—and a statue in his honor is a prominent feature of Harvard Yard.
John Harvard
Legacy[edit]
Founding "myth"[edit]
The Harvard College undergraduate newspaper, The Harvard Crimson,[22] as well as what Harvard Magazine calls "smartass" tour guides,[23][24] commonly assert that John Harvard does not merit the honorific founder, because the Colony's vote creating the institution occurred two years prior to Harvard's bequest. But as detailed in a 1934 letter by Jerome Davis Greene, Secretary of the Harvard Corporation, the founding of Harvard College was not the act of one but the work of many; John Harvard is therefore considered not the founder, but rather a founder,[25][26] of the school—though the timeliness and generosity of his contribution have made him the most honored of these: