University of Newark Trustees, President, and Provost

From 1936-1946 the University of Newark operated as one of New Jersey's largest institutions of higher learning, and consisted of the state's only accredited law school, a significant business administration program, and a college of arts and sciences. The University resulted from a merger among three separate proprietary institutions: the New Jersey Law School (1908-1936), Seth Boyden School of Business (1929-1936), and Dana College (1927-1936). During the early twentieth-century higher education in New Jersey was dominated by a series of private colleges, and the three schools that would become the University of Newark were themselves founded as for-profit entities. "Colonial colleges" Princeton University (1746) and Rutgers University (1766) were the state's two exceptions.

Dana College Trustee and Law School President, Richard D. Currier, opened negotiations for a merger of the three schools in 1931. The acquisition by Dana College of the Law and Business Schools was announced in April 1933, and the resulting institution was later designated a non-profit "Newark University." Although Currier had expressed an interest in becoming the university's first president, Dana College's Board of Trustees decided this was improper, considering the potential for conflicts of interest given Currier's ownership of New Jersey Law School. Rather, the Trustees nominated Dr. Frank Kingdon, a Trustee and local Pastor, to the presidency of Dana College in January 1934, a position he held when the three schools were formally consolidated two years later. Currier was appointed Treasurer of Dana College (later Newark University) as well as Treasurer of the Board of Trustees.

Kingdon's tenure spanned the University's formative years and was defined by his efforts to gain formal accreditation for the institution and make it financially solvent. Accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges did not occur until 1941, due in large part to difficulties in stabilizing the financial situation by raising a $1 million endowment fund. In addition to the lingering effects of the Depression, the 1937-1938 recession meant that operating budgets would remain anemic until after World War II. The bulk of Kingdon's activities involved developing academic programs and hiring faculty for the three schools, launching a fundraising campaign to establish an endowment, and making the necessary administrative and curriculum changes in order to gain eligibility for accreditation. During the fall of 1939 he took a one-year leave of absence to work with Citizenship Educational Service (CES), an institute devoted to the coordination of "democratic education among national, social, welfare, civic, and labor agencies." However, on April 3, 1940 Kingdon resigned to work full-time at CES, and Dr. George H. Black was appointed President.

After its first ten years of operation the University of Newark emerged from the war financially solvent and fully accredited. However the state's educational and political leaders considered post-war New Jersey unable to absorb an expected deluge of college-bound veterans, and they began a movement to consolidate higher education in the state. Newark University, possessing New Jersey's only accredited law program, as well as a respected business school and liberal arts college, was a valuable asset. The President of Rutgers' Board of Trustees, Franklin Conklin Jr., voiced his desire to merge the two schools in a 1945 letter to Newark University President, Robert C. Clothier. By January 1946 the Rutgers Board had approved a motion to consolidate the campuses, and a February 11, 1946 bill in the state legislation formalized the arrangement. The University of Newark became Rutgers University at Newark on July 4, 1946, thus adding a law and business school to the Rutgers system.

Source: Bennett, Hugh Francis, "A History of the University of Newark, 1908-1946," unpublished doctoral dissertation, New York University School of Education, 1956.

Dr. Frank Kingdon (1894-1972) served as Newark University's first President from 1936 until his retirement in 1940. A Pastor of Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in East Orange, New Jersey, Kingdon was appointed a Trustee of Dana College in February 1934. His previous experience as a college administrator was limited to his chairmanship of the Essex County Emergency Junior College Board of Trustees. However, Kingdon's limited exposure to higher education in Newark was probably a factor in his nomination to the President of the University of Newark. Richard D. Currier, the President of New Jersey Law School and a Trustee of Dana College, had indicated an interest in heading the new University, but other members of the Board preferred a neutral third party. Although Kingdon's tenure lasted only four years (not counting his two years as President of Dana College), his leadership brought the University of Newark out of the Depression debt-free and his academic prowess contributed to its accreditation shortly after his retirement.