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About
At 32, Francis Keppel became Harvard’s youngest dean. Previously, Keppel was assistant dean of Harvard College freshmen and assistant to the Harvard University provost.
During Keppel’s 14-year administration, HGSE gained a solid national reputation as a leading institution for teacher preparation, advanced study, and research in education. In addition, the school became known for its strong commitment to recruiting and training current practitioners. Keppel led HGSE through a period of unprecedented expansion. By 1962, full-time enrollment had quadrupled to 620 students, 80% attending full-time (compared to only 39% in 1948). The school’s endowment more than doubled to $5.8 million. Admissions applications increased from fewer than 200 applicants in 1948 to almost 2,000 in 1962. Expansion of the campus was on the horizon when the school purchased Longfellow Hall in 1961 and made preliminary plans to build a new academic building across Appian Way.
Under Keppel’s leadership, the Master’s of Education Program for elementary teaching was created, and the master’s and doctoral degree programs were expanded. Keppel sponsored experimental programs in group teaching, programmed learning, educational television, and curriculum reform. He reinvigorated several centers to increase research and training opportunities and established the Laboratory for Human Development in 1949 to expand childhood behavioral sciences research. Many of the programs Keppel established connected HGSE with local suburban public school systems for collaborative research and to examine fundamental educational problems.
Keppel resigned in 1962 to become the U.S. Commissioner of Education under President John F. Kennedy. Later, he served on the governing boards of several organizations, including the General Learning Corporation and the Harvard University Board of Overseers. In 1976, Keppel returned as a senior lecturer in education and continued to teach at HGSE until his death in 1990.
George Augusta was a Boston native and painted Keppel’s portrait in 1965. He recalled Keppel as a “very easy-going, charming sitter.” The papers on Keppel’s desk are school integration compliance forms and research funding applications from Harvard University.
Born in Boston in 1922, Augusta studied painting in Florence while serving in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II. From 1946 to 1950, he studied with painter Ernest Lee Major, one of the last surviving members of the influential Boston School of Painting. Augusta was known primarily as a portrait artist who worked with oil paints and pastels in both traditional and impressionistic styles.
In addition to portraiture, Augusta painted beach scenes, landscapes, figure studies, and still lifes. He was a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and the Copley Society.