Why People Listen to Heyns

ROGER W. HEYNS has worn many hats: chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley in the tumultuous late 1960s; professor of psychology at the University of Michigan; president of the American Council on Education; and now head of one of the nation's largest foundations, established in 1966 by William R. Hewlett, cofounder of the Hewlett-Packard Company. ``In each of those roles he's distinguished himself,'' says Frank H.T. Rhodes, president of Cornell University. ``He's a reflective and a thoughtful and a wise and a good man.''

Stanford University president Donald Kennedy agrees. ``He's been a kind of trusted senior counselor and adviser to all of us at Stanford.''

Humphrey Doermann, president of the Bush Foundation in St. Paul, Minn., has worked with Heyns since 1978 on a joint project funding America's traditionally black colleges. ``He's particularly good at simplifying complicated questions into their essentials,'' says Mr. Doermann. ``Two of his essentials generally are, `Who is affected?' and, `Is it fair to those people in the long run?'''

``He understands that if you let ends justify means,'' adds Dr. Kennedy, ``you'll lose your soul along the way.''