Category Archives: Presentation

THANKS for Attending: The Education of Henry S. Randall: Founding President of the Cortland Normal School (1868-1876)

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For those of you who attended, Alumnus Rick Schieffelin’s Presentation on Wednesday, thanks for coming out. We learned a lot about about the founding President of the Cortland Normal School.

Opening slide with Henry Randall photo Slide with Henry Randall & Normal School photos Rick Scieffelin and Sesquecentenial Slide Rick Scieffelin speaking

The Education of Henry S. Randall: Founding President of the Cortland Normal School (1868-1876)
A Sesquicentennial Presentation by Richard Schieffelin

Wednesday, April 10, 20019
6-7:30 PM
Brockway Hall’s Jacobus Lounge

Henry S. Randall was the founding president of the board of overseers of the Cortland Normal School and held that position from 1868 through his death in 1876. His tenure put the school on very solid footing. His significance and contributions are certainly highlights of the long history of the school that became SUNY Cortland. This Presentation will offer historical context to the college’s founding and call attention to the wide ranging contributions that Randall, a citizen of Cortland, made to education in the nineteenth century, contributions that went well beyond the town and county, to the state and national communities.

The presenter, Richard (Rick) Schieffelin, Class of ’75, has intimate connections to the Cortland community dating to the nineteenth century. He was born in Cortland, grew up in Syracuse, returned to Cortland for college, and then attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison for graduate study in American history. From Madison he moved to Northern VA and spent thirty-three years in the aerospace industry. He retired early to devote himself full-time to completing a biography of Henry S. Randall. While continuing his archival research he has shared preliminary findings and interpretations with a number of Cortland audiences. In 2016, he lectured to several Cortland and Syracuse groups on “The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy and Henry S. Randall: The Making of a Family Defense.” And between February 2016 and August 2017 he authored a series of five short articles on Randall in The Bulletin of the Cortland County Historical Society. Rick has one daughter and three grandchildren. He lives in VA with his wife, Josie.

More information from “The Bulletin”: http://www2.cortland.edu/bulletin/news-detail.dot?id=38474ac2-64a5-47de-ba56-3e6a41dbce3a&backUrl=/bulletin/issues/bulletin-18-19/bulletin-13-march-26-2019