The Board of Trustees gathered for the open meeting portion of the 75th Trustee-Council Annual Meeting and paid tribute to the deaths of Harold Tanner ’52 and Peter Ten Eyck II ’60, both former Emeritus Trustees on Friday.
The Board, which is composed of 43 at-large trustees, eight alumni trustees, two faculty members, one undergraduate, one graduate, one employee, seven ex-officio members and one life trustee — who is the direct descendant of Ezra Cornell — typically meet four times a year. Each Board meeting typically has two open sessions, one of which focuses on New York State.
Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, the Board’s Chair, started the open meeting by addressing the agenda for Friday. The meeting consisted of two memorial resolutions that honored the lives of Tanner and Eyck II.
Emeritus status is granted when a Trustee member’s term is completed as a voting member.
Smalling invited Jan Zubrow ’77, emeritus trustee, to speak on Tanner, who described him as her hero.
Zubrow honored Tanner by saying that he was a “force” in the American Jewish community and that she considered him to be a friend and a mentor. She talked about how Tanner’s leadership encouraged debate and discussion. He taught her how to be a leader herself, but more importantly, how to have balance in her life as he was engaged in many civic activities while making time for his family.
Tanner died at the age of 93 on June 14. He graduated from the school of Industrial Labor Relations in 1952 and then went on to serve in the U.S. Navy. After attending Harvard Business School, Tanner founded his own private investment firm, Tanner & Co., Inc.
He served on the Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1997, and was elected to serve as chair of the Board from 1997 to 2002. Tanner was the board chair when first-year students made the shift to living on North Campus.
Starting in 1990, Tanner was co-Chair of the “Creating the Future” Campaign that raised $1.5 billion, the largest-ever endowment campaign completed in higher education at that time. He brought financial stability to the University as the campaign allowed Cornell to be in the top-10 for University endowments. After his term, Tanner received the title of Chairman Emeritus.
According to the University’s bylaws, “The term of office for a Trustee Emeritus shall be for life. Trustees Emeritus may attend meetings of the Board, but shall not be members of the Board, and shall not have the right to vote or to hold elective office on the Board. Trustees Emeritus may attend meetings of any committee upon invitation of the chairperson thereof.”
After Zubrow’s remarks, Smalling asked for a moment of silence from the Board.
Smalling then welcomed Ezra Cornell ’70 B.S. ’71 — who is the great-great-great grandson of University co-founder Ezra Cornell and lifelong trustee — to speak about Ten Eyck II. Cornell said that Ten Eyck II was a great man who always brought joy and humor to others. He was an active Trustee member who never failed to speak his mind about financial matters, according to Cornell.
Cornell fondly recalled that he would call Ten Eyck II the “apple picker.” Ten Eyck II worked in his family businesses, the Ten Eyck Insurance Agency and Indian Ladder Farms.
He was essential in transforming the Indian Ladder Farms from a wholesale business to a diversified enterprise that sold different products from apples, according to Cornell. He worked throughout his life to raise public awareness to the importance of local agriculture and was at the forefront of sustainable agriculture using ecology-based agricultural practices.
Ten Eyck II was 87 years old when he died on Sept. 25. He graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1960. After his undergraduate career, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961 and served till 1963. He served on the Board of Trustees for 12 years and was named Trustee Emeritus in 2001.
Smalling once again requested a moment of silence from the Board to honor and commemorate Ten Eyck II before adjourning the meeting until the following day.
