A Chronicle of Higher Education

Harry Birkin’s battles with time and timing were evident from early childhood. In postcards, letters and memoranda we trace his development as a child, adolescent, undergraduate student, and his career in academia. We read of Harry’s progress through his creative rationalizations for the delays and mishaps that characterized his personal and administrative behavior. He moved up the ladder to positions of increased responsibility, sufficiently admired by his colleagues, his profession and institution, to have had, upon his retirement, a campus building named for him. Harry, so to speak, marched to a different beat.