Derek Curtis Bok (born 1930) served as dean of the Harvard Law School until he was named president of Harvard University in 1970. In this position he helped broaden the university's mission in its relationship to the larger community while retaining its tradition of intellectual and academic excellence.

Derek Curtis Bok was born March 22, 1930, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to Curtis and Margaret Plummer Bok. He came from a prominent Pennsylvania family which includes great-grandfather Cyrus Curtis, founder of the Curtis Publishing Company; grandfather Edward Bok, the first editor of the Ladies Home Journal and author of the classic autobiography The Americanization of Edward Bok; and father Curtis, who was a novel-writing Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice. Bok attended Stanford University, where he received a B.A. degree in 1951 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Following graduation he came close to selecting the Foreign Service as a career, but instead entered...