Harry Levit, beloved admissions officer for nearly four decades

Harry Levit, a member of the Yale admissions office for many years of change and growth, died on Aug. 12 in Amherst, Mass. He was 71.

Levit joined the Undergraduate Admissions Office in the late-1970s, when the dean was Worth David and the office handled roughly 10,000 applications a year. Working under subsequent deans Rick Shaw, Jeff Brenzel, and Jeremiah Quinlan over the nearly four decades that followed — a period when the applicant pool burgeoned and dramatically increased in diversity and the office moved from reviewing hard copy files to online applications — Levit was a fixture, a beloved associate director who cared deeply about his job and the team doing it with him.

What made Levit so special professionally was his warm, generous, and non-judgmental habit of being, colleagues said. He was soft-spoken, gentle, and patient, and, wherever he traveled in his admissions role, applicants, teachers, and college counselors warmed to his unpretentiousness and openness.

Among his many qualities was his ability to place himself inside the minds of the students whose applications he was reviewing. His painstakingly written assessments of files were legendary: judicious, fair-minded, and designed to be as generous as possible to each student he was evaluating, and to ensure other readers viewed each with the same consideration. His dedication to social justice was consistent with his Quaker schooling. He was always the first to call attention to the achievements of first-generation applicants and those from underrepresented communities.

This same habit of being made him a favorite among his colleagues. He was entirely apolitical — office politics were beyond anything he was interested in — and his standing apart from competition or gossip normal in any office environment ensured he was always looked on with respect and affection. In recent days several people independently spoke of him as the kindest person they had ever known.

Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, remembered Levit as a part of the glue that held the office together: “Everyone liked and trusted him,” said Quinlan. “In his admissions work, as in all of his dealings with people, he embodied the Quaker belief in accepting and respecting each individual’s uniqueness.”

Jeff Brenzel, Quinlan’s predecessor, agreed. “For his entire career, Harry devoted himself to an extraordinary standard of care and fairness. He was not only a discerning advocate for students, but he also made everyone who worked in admissions feel they mattered. Harry’s greatest gift to us was his personal example.”

Harry Levit was born in Philadelphia to Drs. Samuel Levit and Edithe Levit. He attended a Quaker school, Friends Select, in Philadelphia, then studied at Haverford College where he majored in psychology and played on the varsity tennis team. He earned a master’s degree in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and then moved to New Haven to work as assistant director in Yale’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, where he worked for his whole professional life. For many of those years he was associate director of admissions. He took a few years away to earn his doctorate in education at Harvard.

Levit is survived by his brother David Levit; his sister-in-law Ruth Kane-Levit; his nephew Jeremy Levit; his niece Rebecca Levit Crawford; and her husband Kody Crawford. A funeral was followed by a shiva, where friends and former colleagues shared warm remembrances.

Donations in Levit’s memory can be made to The Philadelphia Education Fund. Its mission is to “create equitable access to opportunities for students by providing resources and expertise that build paths to college and career success.”

Levit represented Yale with distinction. His integrity, warmth, and kindness will remain a model for the colleagues who worked with, admired, and felt great affection for him.