Harwick held the Fleet Commandership for nine years, which by the UFN's standards is a long tenure — long enough that the institution had time to settle around her and mistake the stability for permanence. She had come up through bridge command, served as a tactical officer before taking her first hull, and held three successive commands before the flag rank that preceded the Commandership. The path was orthodox. She followed it because it was correct, not because it was easy, and there is a difference.
Her tenure covered the period the Fleet's historians have taken to calling the Consolidation: years in which the fundamental question was less what the UFN should do than how it should do it. Harwick had opinions on procedure. She had opinions on command structure, on the correct relationship between the Fleet and the Federation's civilian oversight bodies, on where the line should fall between operational discretion and Board accountability. The Fleet, during her command, largely ran as she believed a fleet should run. This is rarer than it sounds.
She had intended Thrale to succeed her. She had not announced this — the process did not require her to — but the offer in 2245 was not a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention. His declination was. She has not, in any forum, said what she thought of it. The search that followed produced her own Vice Admiral, Artemis Winstanley. Harwick accepted the appointment without public comment. The handover in 2246 was correct and complete. They have not spoken since.
She has returned to civilian life, declined all advisory and honorary positions offered since her retirement, and is not known to give interviews. The Fleet's institutional memory of her tenure is, by all accounts, good. She has not indicated that this matters to her.