Anyone who spends time in universityHall has seen Counter zipping through thecorridors. Friends and colleagues say he workslong hours and never slows down.

A 1977 Dewar's Scotch "Profile" advertisementwidely published in magazines described him as"Energetic, warm, penetrating. Driven by a thirstfor new knowledge that may lead to new truths."

The advertisement may overstate the case, butCounter's co-workers marvel at his constant energyand the myriad of jobs he manages to handle.

"I call him a Renaissance mind," says NatoshaO. Reid '93, co-chair of the Foundation's StudentAdvisory committee. "If he's not in the bio lab,he's at the Foundation; if he's not theFoundation, he's writing a book."

As an associate professor of neurobiology,counter earned a reputation for delivering livelylectures and taking time to counsel students. hehelped form a Black undergraduate science society.

As an amateur explorer in South America, heconfirmed hereditary links betweenAfrican-Americans and jungle tribes in theSuriname. His film and book on the topic werehighly acclaimed.

As director of Harvard's first race relationsagency, he built the Harvard Foundation into aprogram that some say other colleges should use asa model.

Ironically, the student groups that flocked tosupport counter this month were actually opposedto the Foundation and its integrationist missionwhen it was first created in 1981. The Blackstudents Association organized a boycott of theFoundation in 1982.

The minority groups urged the University thento create a Third world Center, a resourceavailable only to minorities which would addressspecific minority concerns.

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J.Gomes chaired a student-faculty committee whichproposed the Foundation instead, and Counterbecame the office's first director.

"The main challenge to the first director wasto implement the vision to the Gomes Report," saysDean of Students Archie C. Epps III, a member ofthat committee. "We were especially concerned thatthe goal of integration would be overriding."

Counter was charged with the difficult task ofmaking the foundation popular with students aswell as faculty.

Administrative Dean of the Graduate School ofArts and Sciences John B. Fox '54 was dean of theCollege at the time. He says Counter "then, as heis now, was a somewhat controversial figure."

Fox says Counter was always "pushing the issueof racial understanding."

"He was really on the side of the angels," Foxsays. "But angels aren't always understood."