Friends, fans celebrate Galbraith's life

CAMBRIDGE -- John Kenneth Galbraith arrived by subway outside the gates of Harvard nearly 72 years ago, a young economist eager to take his place as an instructor at the revered institution.

Yesterday, hundreds gathered close by for his memorial service in Harvard Yard, where speakers recalled not just Galbraith the professor, but Galbraith the father, the friend, the neighbor.

``He cast a long shadow both figuratively and literally, and Harvard without him will never be quite the same," said Derek C. Bok , a former president of the university.

In the decades since he first strolled the grounds, Galbraith himself became an institution -- the best-known economist of his time and an adviser to presidents. Inside Memorial Church, though, where the fluttering of a few hundred makeshift fans barely stirred the sultry air, Galbraith was present as much through his wit as his wisdom.

``He orchestrated all of this -- there isn't a spontaneous moment," joked the Rev. Peter J. Gomes a few minutes before opening the service with an invocation calling forth the spirit of his friend, who died April 29 .

Spontaneity abounded, however, as Galbraith's own words drew peals of laughter. A dozen speakers -- his three sons and some close friends -- liberally sprinkled their recollections with Galbraith's observations. They said he would have liked it that way.

James K. Galbraith noted that his father was fond of saying: ``Galbraiths first -- modesty is a vastly overrated virtue."

``John Kenneth Galbraith loved words," said Richard Parker , author of a 2005 biography on Galbraith. ``Above all, he loved words written and spoken about himself."

Many pews were filled by the politically and socially influential, those who breathe the rarefied air Galbraith once did: Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his niece Caroline Kennedy ; Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall ; Amartya Sen , a Nobel laureate in economics; the writers Gloria Steinem and William F. Buckley Jr. ; former US senator George S. McGovern , and former governor Michael S. Dukakis, who, like McGovern, ran for president.

``I should have made him my campaign manager," Dukakis said of Galbraith after the service. ``I might have won."

Just as numerous at the service were those who knew Galbraith slightly or simply admired his work. Several of his books on economics became best sellers, a testament to his gift for distilling complex thoughts into prose that appealed as much to lay readers as to his professorial colleagues.

Sherri Dottin , whose mother was a seamstress for Galbraith's wife, Catherine , often spent summers with the Galbraiths at their farm in Newfane, Vt., where dinners sometimes featured contests to see who could eat the most ears of corn, grown in the family vegetable patch.

``He didn't discriminate against anybody," Dottin, who is African-American and lives in Medford, said after the service. ``He didn't have any airs about him. He was just like an average guy."

Adair Jameson , who lives in Townsend, Vt., not far from the Galbraiths' farm, said that when she was a child Galbraith would give her and other children rides in a jeep.

``He would hit all the potholes in the dirt road, driving as fast as he could," said Jameson, who is 66. ``He had a joie de vivre and an abandonment. When he was going around a curve on two wheels, he would say, `Hold on!' "

A great many of Galbraith's acolytes met him when he was already middle-aged and had themselves gone gray as their mentor's longevity stretched into a 10th decade. At times yesterday, there was a sense of a torch passing.

While walking to the reception following the service, Marshall said Galbraith's death made her feel ``as if there was a huge era coming to an end, and the beginning of a new one."

Still, his son James said during the service that ``as long as we have Ken to read, he has us to carry on."

``His immortality is our mission," Gomes said, ``and by God's grace we will carry it out."

Galbraith preferred to be called Ken. An optimist even when powerful leaders didn't follow his advice, he was worldly without being world-weary. And at 6-foot-8, he was as well known in his neighborhood as he was among economists around the world. His son said that recently he called for a cab to take him to his parents' address in Cambridge.

``I gave my name and [the] number and the dispatcher said, `Are you the professor?' as if in Cambridge there was only one," his son said.

And in some ways there was -- at least when it came to economics. McGovern said that when his daughter was applying to colleges, he once asked Galbraith ``as a practical matter" what difference it would make if she attended Harvard rather than Wellesley.

Galbraith, according to McGovern, replied: ``Well, at Harvard, if you're lucky, you might get Galbraith once a week. At Wellesley, you might get one of my C-minus students three days a week."

One of the last speakers was Senator Kennedy, to whose family Galbraith was closely linked.

``He meant the world to all of us in the Kennedy family," Kennedy said, adding later, ``There might not have been a New Frontier without him."

Galbraith, he said, had been his teacher in a variety of ways for decades, ``and I only wish that Jack and Bobby could have had the gift of those years, too. . . . I inherited Ken from Jack and it was one of the greatest treasures he gave me."

``We love you, Ken," Kennedy said , his voice breaking. ``We miss you very much."

During his remarks, Parker said that he noticed an inventory tag on the casket that read: ``John Kenneth Galbraith -- oversized."

``I did not write those words, but I wish I had," Parker said. ``I think they got it right."