Death and Legacy
Between 1965 and 1969, Conant, suffering from a heart condition, worked on his biography, My Several Lives. He became increasingly infirm, and suffered a series of strokes in 1977. He died in a nursing home Hanover, New Hampshire, on February 11, 1978. His body was cremated and his ashes interred in the Thayer-Richards family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and sons. His papers are in the Harvard University Archives. Amongst them was a sealed brown Manila envelope that Conant had given the archives in 1951, with instructions that it was to be opened by the President of Harvard in the 21st century. It was given to Drew Faust in 2007, who broke the seal. It contained a letter in which Conant expressed his hopes and fears for the future to his successor. "You will receive this note and be in charge of a more prosperous and significant institution than the one over which I have the honor to preside," he wrote. "That will maintain the traditions of academic freedom, of tolerance for heresy, I feel sure."
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