News & Events
College Hosts Visit by Thomas E. Dewey, Jr.
From left City Tech Foundation Chairman Emeritus Andrew Namm, City Tech President Fred Beaufait, and Thomas E. Dewey, Jr.
From left, Otto Klitgord, the College's first director, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, and Board of Trustees Chairman Benjamin Namm in 1946.
"What fun it would be to see together what our fathers' work has wrought." These words concluded a letter written late last spring by Andrew Namm, chairman emeritus of the City Tech Foundation, to Thomas E. Dewey, Jr., son of the late governor and twice presidential candidate. Namm mailed the letter almost 57 years to the day after Governor Dewey had named Namm's father, Benjamin, as first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the innovative New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences at New York City.
The results? Dewey accepted Namm's invitation to spent several hours on campus on October 20, beginning with an informal meeting with City Tech President Fred Beaufait, followed by lunch in the Janet Lefler Dining Room and a tour of the City Tech campus.
"On October 20, City Tech touched base with its roots," observes presidential assistant Stephen Soiffer. "The College was delighted by Mr. Dewey's visit and by this opportunity to honor two men who were there at the start."
Governor Dewey and Benjamin Namm were instrumental in the establishment of the College in 1946. The original institute was an experiment in higher education that for the first time ever combined instruction in the technologies of the era with college-level studies in the arts and sciences. It was an educational idea whose time had come and it worked. From 234 students at the start, City Tech has grown to serve more than 23,000 degree program and adult education students today. Dewey and Namm can be rightly proud of what has become of what their fathers began. The Namm family remains extremely active working for the benefit of City Tech, including the recent creation of the Benjamin Namm Memorial Scholarship.
Photo 1 by Dominick Sarica
Photo 2 courtesy of College Archives
