Lawrence Bacow

Bacow was born on August 24, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan. His mother emigrated from Europe at age 19 after World War II and was the only member of her family to survive Auschwitz. His father was brought to the United States as a child to escape pogroms.[2] Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, and was a part of the Boy Scouts of America; he would eventually rise to be an Eagle Scout. The organization would give him the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award later in life.[3][4]

Bacow attended Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.[5] He then received his S.B. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his M.P.P. from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Ph.D. in public policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[6][7]

Bacow began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served as professor at the institution for 24 years, ultimately being appointed department chair and the chancellor. Bacow majored in economics as an undergraduate at MIT. Upon completion of graduate school in 1977, he returned to MIT to teach in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, becoming the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies. He was the co-founder and first Director of MIT's Center for Real Estate. As Chancellor of MIT (1998-2001), he had oversight of undergraduate and graduate education, student life, admissions, financial aid, athletics, campus planning, and MIT's large scale institutional partnerships both industrial and international.[8] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.[9]

On September 1, 2001, he was elected as the 12th President of Tufts University.[10]

While President of Tufts, Bacow opposed the unionization efforts of graduate students as well as those of the university's technical and clerical employees.[11][12] On February 8, 2010, in an email to the student body he announced that he would be stepping down as President of Tufts in June 2011. On March 1, 2010, President Barack Obama announced that Bacow was appointed to the board of advisors for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.[13] Bacow received $2,182,717 in compensation in 2011.[14]

On May 25, 2011, Bacow was named as a member of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the boards tasked with guiding the endeavors and initiatives of Harvard University.[15] Thus, for approximately one month, until his resignation from Tufts, he had governance responsibilities at both Tufts University and Harvard University.

After Bacow was mentioned in The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2006 as a possible candidate to succeed Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University, Bacow categorically denied interest in the position, saying, "I took this job [Tufts] expecting it to be my last. I still do."[16]

On February 11, 2018, it was announced that Bacow was set to become the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2018, succeeding Drew Gilpin Faust.[17][16] Chosen out of 700 candidates, his election was considered a "safe" succession to Faust.[10]

Bacow is an avid runner, with five marathons under his belt.[18][19] He and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, president of Community Partners Consultants, an urban planning firm, have two sons, Jay (b. 1980)[20] and Ken.[21] On March 24, 2020, Bacow and his wife tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.[22] In a discussion with the Harvard Gazette, Bacow described surprise at the diagnosis, claiming he and his wife had been completely isolated in their house for close to ten days prior to experiencing symptoms.[23] However, subsequent investigation and interviews by the university's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, found that the Bacows had actually asked Harvard custodians to clean their house well into the first wave of the pandemic for four hours, twice a week, up until ten days after Harvard shut down and three days before the Bacows began experiencing symptoms.[24] Shortly after the Bacows tested positive for COVID-19, both custodians also began experiencing symptoms of the disease.[24]

• List of Harvard University people
• List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
• List of Tufts University people

• Harvard profile
• Lawrence S. Bacow biography - Tufts University
• The President's Marathon Challenge
• Larry Bacow Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler radio show April 27, 2005