A few minutes after 9 last night, Patrick R. Sorrento, The Crimson's production supervisor, walked into the newsroom to a standing ovation. When the applause had ended, Sorrento bluntly asked, "Now is the paper closed out yet?"

The moment was quintessential Pat: the predictable and incessant wisecracks, the no-nonsense concern for the timely production of the newspaper and the authority that stems from decades of looking after The Crimson and the students that put it together.

Sorrento, a 63-year old priest from Everett, retired last night after 31 years of service to The Crimson--a home that gave him late nights and long friendships with generations of Harvard undergraduates.

"When you think of The Crimson, definitely his face comes to mind," said former Crimson president David J. Barron '89. "Pat's a huge presence there."

Sorrento--like all Crimson editors known by his initials, PRS--began his Crimson tenure in the days of molten lead "slugs" of letters. PRS, along with 15 press operators, braved the lead fumes and scorching heat in the basement of 14 Plympton to keep the presses running.

When The Crimson switched to a cold-type system in 1970, Sorrento was one of the few press operators retained.

Jeremy Halbreich '74, former Crimson business manager, says Sorrento was in favor of the change and helped during the transition.

"Were it not for his skills we would have had difficulties," Halbreich said.

Sorrento's assistance has always come along with tease and torment as he continued to teach the ever-changing Crimson staffers to do their jobs.

"If you were trying to paste up your page and looking for the proper tools, and were silly enough to ask Pat if he'd seen any rulers lying around, he'd always reply, 'There's only one ruler in the shop (and that's me)," wrote Jessica A. Dorman '87, former Crimson president, in an e-mail message.

As technology changed, Sorrento's job evolved with it, and he built an immeasurable wealth of newspaper knowledge.

"He knows all of the little rules that everyone tends to forget," said Andrew A. Green '98, former Crimson managing editor. "If you say to him, 'Do you have a shorter word for this?' he has six."

As Sorrento tells it, he was retained for his affability and ease with undergraduates.

"Kids confide in me, ask me questions like they would an older brother or their parents," he says.

According to Crimson lore, Sorrento keeps a closet in his home full of mementos undergraduates have given him.

"He has matchbooks from 25 years ago that two kids who went to a formal brought back to him," Green said.