75 Years of Pride and Purpose

A Message From the 75th Anniversary Committee Chair

On September 23, 1935, Hofstra College opened its doors to 19 faculty members and approximately 800 students. Under the direction of Truesdel Peck Calkins, Howard Brower and the trustees of the Hofstra estate, they bravely began a new and hopeful journey in higher education by starting a small, commuter college in what had been until only a few years earlier Kate and William Hofstra’s Hempstead Plains home.

Exactly 75 years later, Hofstra University — today an internationally renowned university with a student body of thousands and a faculty community of hundreds — launched a yearlong series of events to commemorate a rich history of Pride and Purpose. Beginning with the Diamond Weekend, September 23-26, 2010, festivities included a Happy Birthday Hofstra celebration with a custom-made cake by Charm City Cakes replicating the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library and the original Unispan; a Live At 75 Festival, including music acts from the 1960s through the present; a Grucci fireworks spectacular; and “An Evening with Jimmy Fallon.”

We hope you enjoy this retrospective of the Diamond Weekend. Please visit  hofstra.edu/75 for information on 75th anniversary events planned for spring 2011, as well as information on the Hofstra Honor Roll and Oral History Project (click on “History”). There are also opportunities for you to share your own memories and photos (click on “Interact”).

Sincerely,
Melissa Kane Connolly ’89
Vice President, University Relations
Chair, 75th Anniversary Committee

Posted in: 75th Anniversary,Committee Chair,Melissa Connolly