University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

The legacy of Ralph Hochstetter

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  (from left) Seymour H. Knox Jr., Father Raymond J. Ash and Clifford Furnas at the 1955 cornerstone ceremony for Ralph Hochstetter Hall, the new physics building.

Published: October 28, 2010

“$10 million left to UB by Hochstetter” read a banner headline in the Buffalo Evening News on June 20, 1956. This record-breaking gift for UB’s medical school represented half of the estate left by Ralph Hochstetter. An equal amount was going to the University of Rochester for its medical school. The endowments, which UB established with its share of the estate, continue to support medical research.

The size of the gift was big news. The story of how close UB came to missing out is the bigger story.

Ralph Hochstetter was born in Buffalo in 1869, and as a young man he began buying oil leases in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oklahoma. Together with David Gunsburg, who would marry Hochstetter’s sister, Bertha, he amassed vast holdings in industrial and commercial concerns. At Gunsburg’s death in 1915, Hochstetter and his sister inherited the estate. Later, his sister married prominent local physician and Niagara University medical school professor Henry C. Buswell.

It appears that when the Niagara University school was merged with UB’s medical school in 1898, Buswell felt he had been slighted by UB and shifted his allegiances to the University of Rochester. After Buswell’s death in 1940, the resentment toward UB held by Hochstetter and his sister intensified.

Bertha Hochstetter Buswell was childless and Ralph Hochstetter never married, so when his sister died, Hochstetter found himself alone in the mansion they had shared at 152 Lincoln Parkway surrounded by tapestries, valuable rugs, silver and other objects that had been collected by his sister. By the time Clifford C. Furnas become UB chancellor in 1954, Hochstetter was an invalid and, with no love for UB, he had decided that his sizeable estate would go to the University of Rochester. There was to be nothing for UB.

With encouragement and assistance from Henry LaForge of the medical school and banker Louis Harriman, Furnas was introduced to Hochstetter. As a scientist with knowledge of the mineral and chemical industries, Furnas was able to discuss topics of interest to Hochstetter. After a couple of meetings, Hochstetter agreed to donate the funds needed to construct a new physics building at UB. Then, to Furnas’ surprise, Hochstetter changed his will to split the bulk of his estate between UB and Rochester. Seven weeks later, Hochstetter died.

In October 1955, the cornerstone was laid for a new physics building to be named Ralph Hochstetter Hall. In the photograph at right, UB Council Chair Seymour H. Knox Jr. and Father Raymond J. Ash are seen with Furnas at the cornerstone ceremony.

UB and Rochester also benefited from the sale of the mansion and many of the items that had been acquired by Hochstetter’s sister. UB retained many pieces of silver and china that now are used for entertaining at the UB President’s Residence on Lebrun Road. Rugs from the estate are in use in several campus locations.

Since 1965, the mansion at 152 Lincoln Parkway has served as the residence of the president of Buffalo State College. The Hochstetter named was moved to a new structure on the North Campus in 1977, with the Hochstetter Hall renamed Grover W. Wende Hall. Wende Hall has been the home of the School of Nursing since 2009.

In his will, Hochstetter specified that the income from his estate be used to establish Buswell Research Fellowships in memory of his sister and brother-in-law. Hundreds of Buswell medical research fellows have been appointed since the first was named in 1957.

—John Edens, University Archives