News & Events
New Book Provides Photo History of City Tech’s First 60 Years
A new book by Dr. Martin Garfinkle and Dr. Stephen M. Soiffer traces the 60-year history of New York City College of Technology in photos and narrative that well document the enormous contribution the College has made in meeting the local, regional, national and international workforce development needs of an increasingly technology-based global economy. Dedicated to “the 78,000 alumni who demonstrate every day the excellence and value of a City Tech education,” the book’s 186 historical photos and refreshingly concise text are a resource that no alumnus, current or former instructor, staff member and other friends of City Tech should be without.
Published in spring 2007 and now available for purchase through the City Tech Foundation, New York City College of Technology traces the establishment and evolution of a remarkable institution that current President Russell K. Hotzler writes has always kept “one foot in the present and one in the future,” ensuring that its academic programs remain “aligned with the high-tech workforce needs of tomorrow.”
The book is a history of the tens of thousands of men and women of all ages and backgrounds who have studied and taught at City Tech over the past six decades. “Dr. Garfinkle and I get credit on the cover and title page,” says Dr. Soifffer, “but the real credit goes to the alumni, students, faculty and staff, and others who have created over the past 60 years an altogether unique model of education. Sixty years from now, when someone repeats our efforts, I am sure they will say that the second six decades were even better.”
In a rich account of his family’s long association with what originally was called the New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences, City Tech Foundation Chair Emeritus Andrew I. Namm, shares through an often-humorous Foreword his earliest recollections of that association. “I first learned of the new institute from my late father, Major Benjamin H. Namm, around the family dinner table shortly after my discharge from the U.S. Navy. Few topics enjoyed as much conversation, except perhaps how the Brooklyn Dodgers were doing that season and the impending doubling of the New York City transit fare from a nickel to a dime.”
Benjamin Namm owned and operated A.I. Namm & Son Department Store on Brooklyn’s busy Fulton Street and also served as president of the National Retail Dry Goods Association. A veteran of the First World War, he longed to do something to help the young men and women returning to civilian life from active duty in World War II.
“My father had the notion that New York State should offer them a college-level general education and comprehensive training in the new and emerging technologies of the era under the GI Bill,” writes the younger Namm. “He took the idea to Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who liked it a lot and set in motion a process that led to the establishment of the institute in an empty warehouse on Downtown Brooklyn’s Pearl Street and at other borough locations. Of course, dad got more than he asked for, when Governor Dewey requested that he serve as first chairman of the institute’s board of trustees, a position he held until 1964.”
From left, Martin Garfinkle and Stephen M. Soiffer at May 2007 book signing
Garfinkle and Soiffer write that since its establishment in April 1946, “No one could have predicted the transformation the College has experienced. From its beginnings as an Institute – to being chartered as a community college – and subsequently transitioning to senior college status – it has grown from serving 234 students in the class of 1947, to a population today of over 13,300 students – 4,000 in baccalaureate degree programs. The College’s mission, however, has not changed – it is still urgent – and it is still focused on developing a technically proficient workforce and well-educated citizens who can prosper in a world that has become flat, fast and unforgiving to those who are not educationally prepared.”
The authors go on to note that City Tech is situated in what today is “the exciting, resurgent center of Downtown Brooklyn, rapidly acquiring a skyline that will rival Manhattan, London or Tokyo. City Tech will soon be the home to what is sure to be the architectural landmark of Brooklyn. Standing at the corner of Tillary and Jay Streets, directly across from the Namm Building, will be the most original piece of architecture since the Brooklyn Bridge, a masterpiece conceived by the celebrated architect Renzo Piano.”
As The City University of New York’s first public-private construction partnership, the new City Tech building will provide more than a quarter of a million square feet of state-of-the-art classrooms and labs, academic offices, a sprawling entertainment center and top-flight athletic and recreational facilities. In addition, a major makeover now in progress is transforming the College’s Voorhees Building, the center for its engineering technology programs “from a drab representation of the Industrial Era into a sleek icon of the Information Age. The new face of the building,” the authors note, “will make it clear to everyone who sees it that it is a place where you can create the future and can learn the technological skills necessary to thrive in it.”
New York City College of Technology is the story of an institutional history rich in both its commentary on the challenges those who made that history faced and the conviction and creativity they brought to overcoming them. The book is a collector’s item and must reading for all who have in the past or will in the future play a part in the growth and evolution of the College as it continues to meet our nation and world’s workforce development needs. All proceeds from book sales will help provide additional scholarships for City Tech students.
Dr. Martin Garfinkle is a professor and former chair of City Tech’s Department of Human Services. He is author of The Jewish Community of Washington, D.C., published by Arcadia Publishing in 2005 as part of it “Images of America” series. Dr. Stephen M. Soiffer has served as assistant to the president for institutional advancement during two successive City Tech administrations. Prior to that, he served as the College’s Dean for Enrollment Management & Retention.
July 20, 2007
