Lawrence Hollander came to Union in 1986 as a visiting professor of electrical engineering and left as a dean and a true College friend.
Along the way, he distinguished himself as creator of the largest single scholarship fund of any living Union donor – the Lawrence J. Hollander Endowed Bicentennial Scholarship for engineering students.
“Establishing a scholarship was an easy decision,” he says. “Union College, with more than 200 years of history and 150 years of engineering, is where I want to be remembered. I believe in the idea of a private liberal arts college containing engineering curricula.”
A native of New York City, Hollander first set foot on Union's campus in spring 1971 while doing an accreditation visit as secretary of the New York State Education Department Board for Engineering and Land Surveying. In addition to his seven years with the state, he served as a dean at The Cooper Union and has taught at his alma mater, New York University (B.S.E.E., 1951; M.S.E.E., 1954).
“I came to Union College to teach electrical engineering and computer science, and three years later, I jumped in as dean. When I retired in 1993, the Trustees made me dean of engineering emeritus,” says Hollander, who gained a name for himself as an expert in electrical power during the famous Northeast blackout of 1965.
At Union, he is also known for the music prize that bears his name. Five years ago, when Hilary Tann, a close associate, asked him to consider supporting a Hollander Convocation Musician Prize, he was generous, once again, to the College that “is like a second home.” Each year, he looks forward to Convocation, to meet the student recipient. (Of his own musical interests, he says: “I've been toying with the acoustic guitar to keep my mind and fingers coordinated now that I'm in my 80th year.”)
In addition to supporting Union with scholarships, Hollander donates time and resources to many community groups – when he's not circumnavigating the globe, that is. Since retirement, he's walked with the penguins in Antarctica, sailed on the Yangtze River in China, gone river boating on the Rhine, a mere sampling of his peregrinations. Recently, he returned from sailing through the Panama Canal.
Luckily, he says, he's a more talented stock trader than musician.
“My daily trading on the stock market has provided funds for my travel, contributions to the Salvation Army and support of the Hollander Bicentennial Scholarship and the musician's prize.”
As Lisa A. DeMar '03's career takes off – she begins a job with Lockheed Martin this month, newly armed with an M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech – she's quick to put in a good word for her benefactor. Says the Lawrence J. Hollander Endowed Bicentennial Scholarship recipient: “The scholarship certainly was helpful financially and as a point of note on my resume. More than that, it was terrific to meet my scholarship donor. I was particularly pleased to discover that he was a former dean of engineering at Union with interests similar to my own.”