More than 100 faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the University attended the special Charter Day Reception at the Paterson Museum on April 20, 2005 to commemorate the institution’s founding in 1855 in Paterson as the Paterson Normal School.

Leslie Agard-Jones, College of Education, Zita Pruitt, Henry Pruitt, University Board of Trustees, and Rodney Cauthen ’97, alumni relations. (Click here to see a web photo album from the event)

“One hundred fifty years ago, three or four people gathered in Paterson to create an institution to train teachers for the children of the city’s millworkers.  They could not have imagined its growth into a university,” said President Arnold Speert.  “We are fortunate that we began in this city, and that we continue to have a connection to Paterson through many of our programs and initiatives.”

During the event, Henry Williams II, a Paterson businessman, presented Speert with a framed portrait of his father, Henry A. Williams, a former New Jersey assemblyman, state senator, and editor and publisher of the Paterson Morning Call, who was involved in drafting the legislation that transformed the institution from Paterson Normal School, an entity controlled by the city, to the New Jersey State Normal School at Paterson. Sen. Williams was also co-chair of a committee in the 1940s that looked at a building program for the college and the eventual purchase of the Hobart estate, where the University has been located since 1951.  The portrait will be displayed in Hobart Manor.

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