When President Derek Bok and the Rev. Peter J. Gomes approached him to lead the new Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations 16 years ago, S. Allen Counter wavered.

He had traveled around the world and believed in having people of different backgrounds live and work together, "but I didn't want to do it. I was a biologist," Counter recalls.

Counter, the Foundation's first and only director, has proved to be an exceptional choice.

"He has been brilliant in harnessing his outside contacts and in working with students in a way that is enabling rather than directive," says Dean of Students Archie C. Epps.

"Allen Counter is an impresario without peer," praises Michael Shinagel, Master of Quincy House and a longtime member of the Foundation's Faculty Advisory Committee.

Counter absolutely loves working with students and even turned down a college presidency once because he didn't want to forfeit that part of his job. "The longer I have led the Foundation," he says, "the more I have felt honored that they [Bok and Gomes] asked me to guide it."

Although the position is technically part-time, it takes up about 90 percent of Counter's time.

But Counter, a neurophysiologist and biologist in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and at the Medical School, also manages to conduct research and teaching projects here and abroad. Recently, he has been studying the health effects of high blood lead levels in the mountains of Ecuador, where villagers -- including young children --strip batteries for ceramic glazing.

Born to a poor but educated family and raised in a segregated town in Florida, Samuel Allen Counter battled the odds and went on to earn a doctorate from Case Western Reserve and a Doctor of Medical Science Degree from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"Explorer" and "ethnographer" also describe Counter, who has found little-known tribes of African slave descendants, both in the South American rain forest and in the Andes mountains. He has also ventured to northern Greenland to find the part-Eskimo son of Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, an African-American who reached the North Pole with Rear Admiral Robert Peary. Counter spearheaded an effort to honor the long-unheralded Henson by burying his remains in Arlington National Cemetery.

Counter's expeditions have led to several books and documentaries, some of which aired on public television this month. He's also fine-tuning a book about race relations in America.

At Harvard, Counter has used his power of persuasion and extensive contacts to bring many distinguished guests here on the Foundation's limited budget. For example, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. spoke at Harvard for free; he normally charged $9,000.

Although the Foundation is not formally responsible for handling complaints of harassment, Counter works behind the scenes to intervene in racial conflicts.

A few years ago, for instance, a group of upset Arab students complained to Counter about some video games in one House that portrayed figures shooting at Arabs. He picked up the phone, called the Master, and accompanied the students to the House.

"The Master and I agreed the machines would be out of there immediately," Counter remembers. "We resolved the problem."