Derek Curtis Bok (born March 22, 1930) is an American lawyer and educator, and former president of Harvard University. Bok was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Following his parents' divorce, he, his mother, brother and sister moved several times, ultimately to Los Angeles, where he spent much of his childhood.

Mar 5, 2024 · As Harvard's longtime president and as a scholar, Derek Bok championed affirmative action. After the Supreme Court struck down racial preferences in university admissions, he accepted reality and...

Jul 31, 2024 · Bok’s latest book is Attacking the Elites: What Critics Get Wrong—and Right—About America’s Leading Universities. He explains that his motivation for it was the absence of response from our “elite” higher-education institutions to the surge in criticism from both sides of our political divide.

Sep 29, 2022 · As the University's 25th president, Derek C. Bok shaped the ideal of Harvard in ways that echo to this day. It, in turn, would shape him. On April 9, 1969, hundreds of Harvard students took...

Feb 29, 2024 · Former Harvard President Derek C. Bok said top American universities like Harvard should end legacy admissions preferences in remarks to the Financial Times on Monday.

Jun 30, 2021 · Former Harvard president Derek Bok has long lamented that our institutions of higher education largely underperform in their missions. He has now written another book making that argument. His Higher Expectations is a coolly rational analysis of what needs to be done to improve American undergraduate education.

Derek Bok is the 300th Anniversary University Research Professor, president emeritus of Harvard University and a former dean of Harvard Law School. A graduate of the Harvard Law School Class of 1954, Bok began his teaching career at Harvard Law School in 1958.

In “ Why Americans Love to Hate Harvard,” published in Harvard Magazine’s March-April 2024 issue, Derek Bok weighs in on the state of higher education at Harvard and other elite colleges and...

The president emeritus on elite universities’ academic accomplishments—and a rising tide of antagonism.

Feb 15, 2018 · As it turns out, Derek C. Bok, after enduring 20 years in the chair, was not actually shown sitting in the chair in his Holyoke-style oil portrait.