For many Hobokenites, the university on the hill – as the Stevens Institute of Technology is known – is a bit of a mystery. It’s a little-visited place where very smart people do very complicated work. For some that’s all they need to know, but for others who would like to know more, help is on the way.
A just-published 400-page history written by Geoffrey Clark, a history professor at Stevens, tells all, from the university’s humble origins (one square city block donated by Edwin A. Stevens) to the most dramatic discoveries of its students and alumnae (including key contributions to Edison’s incandescent light bulb). For the last year-and-a-half, Clark has holed himself up in his first floor Sixth Street office writing among piles of manila folders bearing the names of well-known Stevens alumnae like Frederick Taylor, the father of scientific management, and less well-known Stevens figures such as Henry Morton, the school’s first president.
“There are a few zingers in here,” said Clark Monday, of his book, The History of Stevens Institute of Technology: A record of Broad-Based Curricula and Technogenesis. Clark will read from the book at the Hoboken Barnes and Noble Wednesday.
One such zinger deals with the Stevens family, the family that founded Hoboken. A plaque on campus proudly thanks the family for donating the land the university now sits on.
“That’s a myth,” said Clark as he leaned back in his chair. “The family comes off as being benefactors [in the book]. They gave away Elysian Park and the [Hoboken] library, but they only gave the university one square city block. The rest of it was sold to the trust. Though some of it was sold below market rate, they did not give it away.”
In addition to the one square city block, the family also gave the university a $150,000 building fund and a $500,000 endowment. Though the sum was enormous for the time, Clark wonders whether it was enough to start up a first-rate engineering institution.
“Stevens has never been a very wealthy institution, because of this lack of investment early,” explained Clark. “Edwin A. Stevens just did not give enough money to begin with.”
Thanks to some smart investments, the university has been able to grow its endowment to about $150 million today, but in the early days the continued life of the institution depended on the trustees’ ability to raise more capital.
Hence, Clark calls Henry Morton’s ability to convince Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy steel tycoon, to join the board of Trustees in 1891, “a coup.”
Until World War I, no individual gave more money to the university than Carnegie, a distinction that earned him an invitation to have his name linked to the Stevens name in the school’s title.
“One of the first acts [of the second president of the school] was to lay before Carnegie, in a letter, the needs of the institute as he saw them – nothing that one million dollars wouldn’t solve,” wrote Clark. “At the end of the letter he seemed to offer to link Carnegie with Stevens in the name of the institute, and unfortunately there does not seem to be a written reply.”
Banked in the city
Primary sources show that Carnegie’s connection to the mile-square city actually extends beyond Stevens University. According to Clark, the philanthropist, who gave away more than $350 million before his death in 1919, kept his millions in a bank at First and Newark streets after he sold his interest in U.S. Steel.
“Carnegie kept his millions right here in Hoboken,” said Clark, standing up to make his point with more enthusiasm. “I think what happened was Carnegie was brought in to serve as a trustee [at Stevens] by a gaggle of Scotsmen: Dod [the first President of Stevens], Humphries [the second President] and others. They were all Scottish. I think that Carnegie felt so good about it that when he was looking for a place to put his money after he sold is shares in the steel mills, he turned to Dod, who was the chairman of the Hudson Trust Company.”
By researching old platte maps, Clark found that the bank stood at 52 Newark St. where the Starbucks coffee shop now stands.
“A lot used to happen above that coffee shop,” said Clark. “J.P. Morgan would come by to meet with Carnegie there. It was the site of U.S. Steel meetings.”
Throughout the book, a pride in Stevens, and the accomplishments of its students and alumnae, shines through. Clark details discovery after discovery made by Stevens grads, including research that led to the development of the first incandescent lightbulb, the Mark 1 torpedo and the first nuclear submarine. Out of 1,500 universities that received funding to do research during the Cold War, Stevens received the 26th largest allotment of funds, the professor points out.
Edison impressed
Stevens’ reputation for excellence seems to have been around for some time.
While researching Edison’s letters on microfilm, Clark found a letter to a lawyer in Hoboken in which Edison asserts that Stevens is “probably as good if not the best place at present to study chemical science and engineering.” The letter was dated 1883.
Clark suggests that the record of Stevens students accomplishments may stem, in part, from the breadth of courses they are required to study in order to earn their degrees.
“You need 150 credits to earn a degree here,” said the sandy-haired professor. “Now, I have not looked at them all, but I have yet to come across a college where you need so many credits. Most places it is about 130 credits. In the engineering sciences, basic courses are required in all six disciplines.”
“That’s unusual,” added Clark. “We have structural engineers studying circuitry. That’s our tradition. That’s what makes this place so tough. That’s why people call it the Old Stone Mill.”
The wide breadth of training puts Stevens graduates in a good position to manage large scale engineering projects since they have been trained to think and to talk across disciplines. That’s why Stevens graduates such as George Gibbs – “one of my favorites,” says Clark – were asked in the early 20th century not only to help draw up plans to electrify the first subways in New York, but also to supervise the construction of Penn Station.
In the last chapter of the book, Clark argues that under the guidance of 14-year President Hal Raveche, Stevens has continued to build on the tradition by developing new technologies and working to move them to the marketplace. He talked of a substance and a land mine detector that were developed by Stevens students and are making their way to the marketplace with the help of the university.
But it is clear that while Clark will talk about the present, his enthusiasm is for deconstructing the past. “I’m a little less comfortable with current events,” he said. “I like having the record in front of me.”
Geoffrey Clark will be reading from his book and answering questions at the Barnes and Noble on Washington Street on Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. To purchase a copy of the History of Stevens Institute of Technology, visit Stevenscampusstore.com or call 216-5101.