After all, the University's already got one to focus on.

Since his announcement that he would leave the presidency in June 2001, the requests and letters that used to pour into his office have slowed. Is he nostalgic? Maybe. But he's also amused.

"People have realized I'm not able to give them as much as I used to," he laughs.

If he's no longer so sought after, it doesn't seem to faze him. In a recent interview, Rudenstine seemed more relaxed, chatty--and reflective.

He remembers the time before the last presidential search and his own appointment as "pleasant and interesting."

"I was very happily at work," he says of the period when he was an executive vice president at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. "I had long ago decided not to be a university president…. I wasn't looking to start all over again."

As his administrative days come to a close, the man perhaps known best for considering himself last is thinking about his own future. And noticing his own ticking clock.