Henry Madison "Hank" Rowan Jr. (December 4, 1923 – December 9, 2015) was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, businessman, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. 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 Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. Founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents, the scho ...

in his honour.

Early life

Rowan was born in Raphine, Virginia, to Henry Rowan Sr. and Margaret Frances Boyd Rowan on December 4, 1923Roberts, Sam
"Henry M. Rowan, Industrialist Who Gave $100 Million Gift to University, Dies at 92"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 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."(coincidentally the same year that Rowan University was founded). He grew up in

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a Village (New Jersey), village in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Ridgewood is a suburban commuter town, bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown M ...

and, after serving as a bomber pilot in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

with the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

, attended

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

and graduated from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

with honors with a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Career

Early career

Rowan originally worked for Ajax Electrothermic Corporation of Trenton, New Jersey. 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 Corp

Rowan designed and built his first

induction furnace An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction heating of metal. Induction furnace capacities range from less than one kilogram to one hundred tons, and are used to melt iron and steel, copper, aluminu ...

in 1953 in the garage of his home in

Ewing Township, New Jersey Ewing Township is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township falls within the Trenton- Princeton metropolitan statistical area (which includes all of Mercer County), which is part of the New York combined sta ...

with the help of his wife. Expanding from this first induction furnace, Rowan created Inductotherm, which has since grown to include more than 40 subsidiaries throughout

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. 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.

Philanthropy

Rowan University

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. At the time, it was the largest gift to a public college in the history of higher education. The school also has an engineering building named after him.

Doane Academy

Rowan and his wife were also strong supporters of Doane Academy, a pre-K through secondary school, in Burlington, NJ. 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.

Later life and death

Rowan competed in the 1992 Olympic Sailing trials in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, but failed to qualify. In 1995, he wrote an autobiography titled ''The Fire Within'' with John Calhoun Smith. He lived in Westampton Township, New Jersey for part of his life.Staff
"Fire strikes Rowan estate mansion in Westampton"
''

Courier-Post The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscri ...

'', 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." On December 9, 2015, Rowan died at the age of 92.Henry M. Rowan (Dec. 4, 1923 - Dec. 9, 2015)

, December 2015.

References

External links

Remembering Henry Rowan

Henry Rowan featured in Rowan Magazine

Inductotherm Corp.

Malcolm Gladwell podcast - "My Little Hundred Million"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowan, Henry 1923 births 2015 deaths Engineers from Virginia United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II MIT School of Engineering alumni People from Ewing Township, New Jersey People from Ridgewood, New Jersey People from Westampton Township, New Jersey Rowan University people People from Rockbridge County, Virginia Engineers from New Jersey 20th-century American philanthropists Military personnel from Bergen County, New Jersey Military personnel from Burlington County, New Jersey Military personnel from Mercer County, New Jersey Delta Upsilon members