Flashback
55 years ago
Furnas invested as UB chancellor
UB Council Chair Seymour H. Knox, Jr. (left) congratulates new University of Buffalo Chancellor Clifford C. Furnas. Photo: UB ARCHIVES
On Jan. 7, 1955—55 years ago today—Clifford C. Furnas was invested as the ninth chancellor of the University of Buffalo. The inauguration festivities began on Jan. 6 with a dinner at the Hotel Statler. The following day, a series of symposia were held on the UB campus, with the inaugural ceremony taking place that evening at Kleinhans Music Hall.
Furnas, a chemical engineer, metallurgist, aeronautical researcher and author, held the position of chancellor from 1954 until 1962, when the university merged with the State University of New York and he became UB’s first president. Furnas oversaw an extensive expansion and enrichment program to meet the growing educational needs of Western New Yorkers.
Born in 1900 in Indiana, Furnas graduated from Purdue University. He represented the United States in the 1920 Summer Olympics, competing in the 5,000-meter run. After receiving his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, he served as a research engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and in 1931 joined the faculty of Yale University. He came to Buffalo in 1942 to lead the Curtiss-Wright Research Laboratory. After the laboratory’s airplane division was given to Cornell University in 1946, Furnas became the first director of the new Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory.
Furnas took a leave of absence from his position as UB chancellor from December 1955 to February 1957 to serve as assistant secretary of defense for research and development. He worked with Project Vanguard, which developed the first U.S. satellite. In 1968, he was awarded a Pioneer of the Space Age medal. It is interesting to note that Furnas had predicted manned space travel in his book, “The Next Hundred Years,” a 1936 Book-of-the-Month-Club selection. The book is still in print.
It was Furnas who first approached New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller about the possibility of the private University of Buffalo becoming SUNY’s flagship institution, and then represented the university’s interests in the long and arduous process leading to UB’s merger with SUNY on Sept. 1, 1962. During Furnas’ tenure, 22 buildings were erected, the faculty doubled in size to 2,400 and the University of Buffalo Foundation was established.
In 1964, Furnas established the Clifford C. Furnas Scholar-Athlete Award “to recognize outstanding undergraduate performance in scholarship and athletic prowess” and “to encourage continuation into graduate or professional education.” More than 500 friends and alumni have contributed to the endowment for this annual award.
—John Edens, University Archives
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