Coming of Age
The first phase of expansion on the new campus was establishing a comprehen-
sive library. Initially, the small library in the Mansion was open only during the day and early evening — and not at all on the weekends. Students commuted to the libraries at Drew University or in Morristown or Madison; but this was a problem for resident students who didn’t have access to a car. So, the University built an annex onto the Twombly orangerie (which would become the reading room) for the University’s new library. Completed in the spring of 1961, the facility was named Friendship Library in honor of the bond shared between FDU trustees and supporters Samuel J. Silberman and Fairleigh S. Dickinson, whose donations made the project possible. Then, Sammartino “gave carte blanche to the librarian as far as books were concerned.” By 1962, the collection had grown to exceed 34,000 volumes.
Moran worked at the library from the time she first arrived on campus and witnessed its growth under the tutelage of Edward Broadhead, library director, and Dorothea Creamer, library assistant. She recalls that when the new facility opened, “The desk and the office and the bookshelves all were there. There were vines growing inside the reading room. Every now and then someone decorated the sculptures — put clothes on them.”
Just a year after the campus’s opening, ground was broken for Twombly Residence Halls for resident students among a population that had grown to 550 day students and 1,000 evening attendees. In a novel move, these new buildings, completed in 1964, became the first co-educational dormitories in the state. “There were two floors of rooms,” Moran describes. “On the first floor were the boys, and the second floor had the girls. From what I remember, the housemother was on the floor where the boys were. Just inside the door, there was a unit for her so the boys couldn’t go up and the girls couldn’t go down. We were very protected in those days.” The project also brought new dining facilities and a new fine arts studio to the campus. Soon Dormitory Village would allow an even greater number of students to experience residence life.
In 1967, Peter Sammartino relinquished the office of president to become chancellor, paring down his direct involvement in the University he founded. J. Osborn Fuller became the University’s second president and a provost, James Griffo, who was an associate professor and chairman of the biological sciences department in Madison, succeeded Dean Samuel Pratt in running operations at the rapidly maturing campus. Soon, a new Student Center would provide an enhanced dining experience for residential students as well as a much-needed space for campus activities. And just around the corner was the opening of a new academic facility, the Leonard Dreyfuss Building. The fledgling campus had matured into a living and learning environment that was fully prepared to adapt to a changing world and move strongly into the following decades (see “Florham Today … and Tomorrow”).
And still, Fairleigh Dickinson’s mission to prepare its graduates for the world beyond its gates remains grounded in a strong sense of a close-knit community. For it is within that community that so many men and women have come into their own, with a little help from FDU's many guiding hands.
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