Howard S. Brower
March 12, 1884 - March 4, 1968
Served as Hofstra’s Interim President from 1942 - 1944
“It was my rare privilege to have been associated with the late William S. Hofstra over a period of many years. I came to know him intimately and to appreciate his many sterling qualities. I learned early during our acquaintance of his sincere and intelligent interest in young people and his desire to throw about them every possible opportunity for success and advancement. It seems, therefore, most fitting that this beautiful estate, established and developed by him, should be dedicated to the youth of Long Island.”
– H.S. Brower
Remarks made at the dedication of Brower Hall
Contact Information
Click to Play Audio from Oral History Interview
conducted on September 24, 1964
Transcript of Audio
The rest was left to Mrs. Hofstra. Their property, their homestead The Netherlands was to be left to the Masonic Order of Hempstead of which Mr. Hofstra was a member by, he admitted by a lodge in Holland, Michigan, where he was raised. That they were to take that and maintain it as a memorial to him. And in December of 1934, I’d been into New York down Wall Street, the lawyers, and coming back that night I met John Calkins in Penn Station and we rode out together on the train and in the course of our ride from Penn Station to Hempstead, why we stewed up the idea of a college out here. That’s where it started. And it was laid out with an idea, of well it was laid out for a campus and to accommodate about a thousand students. I mean that was the set-up. That was Calkins’ idea, apparently, of getting the thing started through New York University. He had to have something to lean on, something to sort of give you a push, I suppose. We finally wound up with a temporary charter and then we finally got a permanent charter. But we just kept on going and, oh, I knew my way around Albany at that time quite well.