Henry Rowan
Template:Short description Henry Madison "Hank" Rowan Jr. (December 4, 1923<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – December 9, 2015) was an American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist.
He was the founder of Inductotherm Corp. and the first person to give a $100 million donation to school of higher education in the US, which he gave to Glassboro State College of New Jersey, which was renamed Rowan College of New Jersey later Rowan University in his honour.<ref name="philly" /><ref name=RU/><ref name="gladwell">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=phaedra>Template:Cite news</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Rowan was born in Raphine, Virginia, to Henry Rowan Sr. and Margaret Frances Boyd Rowan on December 4, 1923<ref name="philly">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=NYTobit>Roberts, Sam. "Henry M. Rowan, Industrialist Who Gave $100 Million Gift to University, Dies at 92", The New York Times, December 13, 2015. Accessed December 23, 2017. "Henry Madison Rowan Jr. was born in Raphine, Va., on Dec. 4, 1923. His father was an obstetrician. His mother, the former Margaret Boyd, was a biological researcher.... He was raised in Ridgewood, N.J., in Bergen County, and attended Williams College in Massachusetts before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."</ref>(coincidentally the same year that Rowan University was founded).
He grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey and, after serving as a bomber pilot in World War II with the United States Army Air Forces, attended Williams College and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with honors with a degree in electrical engineering.<ref name=phaedra /><ref name=NYTobit/><ref>Kent, Spencer."Henry Rowan, benefactor of Rowan University, dies at 92", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, December 10, 2015. Accessed December 23, 2017. "Originally from Ridgewood, Rowan studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II before starting his own business."</ref>
CareerEdit
Early careerEdit
Rowan originally worked for Ajax Electrothermic Corporation of Trenton, New Jersey.<ref name="philly" /> He suggested improvements to the furnaces made by Ajax (ie shorter power leads and heavier copper bus bar) but the company did not implement his suggestions.
Rowan left Ajax and decided to start his own company, Inductotherm Corp.
Inductotherm CorpEdit
Rowan designed and built his first induction furnace in 1953 in the garage of his home in Ewing Township, New Jersey with the help of his wife.<ref name=phaedra /><ref name=NYTobit/>
Expanding from this first induction furnace, Rowan created Inductotherm, which has since grown to include more than 40 subsidiaries throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Today, there are more than 27,000 Inductotherm induction melting installations worldwide and they account for more than half of the melting systems in the world today.
PhilanthropyEdit
Rowan UniversityEdit
In Spring 1992, Rowan and his wife Betty pledged $100 million to Glassboro State College in New Jersey, which was renamed Rowan College of New Jersey in his honor and later Rowan University.<ref name=phaedra /> At the time, it was the largest gift to a public college in the history of higher education.<ref name="gladwell" /><ref name=phaedra /> The school also has an engineering building named after him.
Doane AcademyEdit
Rowan and his wife were also strong supporters of Doane Academy, a pre-K through secondary school, in Burlington, NJ.<ref name=phaedra />
In January 2015, they created the Henry M. and Eleanor E. Rowan Endowment, with a gift of $17 million.
The Rowans, personally and through their family foundation, donated over $30 million to Doane Academy over the years.<ref name=phaedra /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Later life and deathEdit
Rowan competed in the 1992 Olympic Sailing trials in Miami,<ref name=phaedra /> but failed to qualify. In 1995, he wrote an autobiography titled The Fire Within<ref name=phaedra /> with John Calhoun Smith.
He lived in Westampton Township, New Jersey for part of his life.<ref>Staff. "Fire strikes Rowan estate mansion in Westampton", Courier-Post, November 10, 2016. Accessed December 23, 2017. "Westampton - A fire was reported at the historic Rowan estate mansion Thursday, according to police reports.... The home, located on county parkland, was formerly owned by the late industrialist and philanthropist Henry Rowan."</ref>
On December 9, 2015, Rowan died at the age of 92.<ref name=RU>Henry M. Rowan (Dec. 4, 1923 - Dec. 9, 2015). Rowan University, December 2015.</ref><ref name=phaedra />