Edward M. Shapiro, former president of New Hampshire College, now Southern New Hampshire University, died on Jan. 7, at the Elliot Hospital, where he was born, and was a former trustee. He was 91.
Shapiro was educated in Manchester schools. When his dad died in the early 1950s, Shapiro was a young person without a lot of direction due do learning disabilities. His father, Harry Alfred Benjamin “H.A.B.” Shapiro, founded New Hampshire College of Accounting and Secretarial Sciences, founded in the Depression.
His mother, Gertrude, decided to keep the school going when her husband died, with the help of William Green, a young local attorney, who became chairman of the school’s board.
After graduating from UNH, Edward went into the Army, and then to work in the family business. He helped develop its business from night classes on the second floor over Hanover Street in Manchester, to alternate offerings. He and his mother bought a couple of farms on the Hookset border off River Road and planned a campus. They later sold the property to the college at cost, missing the chance to make a lot of money due to their vision. His vision and that of the college board persuaded the board to convert the college to a nonprofit called New Hampshire College, and he developed off-campus centers, weekend college programs, night programs and traditional day programs.
When the New Hampshire College campus on River Road opened, Ed Shapiro became president of the college, and his mother assumed a role in the business office. He continued to be a builder and innovator in nontraditional education. About this time, in 1972, this writer met Shapiro as a client of our law firm at which Kimon Zachos and Bill Green were trustees — Green having helped Mrs. Shapiro keep the place open in 1952.
During his leadership, Shapiro continued to acquire real estate around the core campus, open more off-campus centers and offer alternate educational programs. He acquired the campus of the former Mount Saint Mary College in Hooksett, which became the North Campus of New Hampshire College, 40 acres at the intersection of North River Road and Union Street in Manchester, and a number of other properties adjacent to the original property.
Shapiro hired notable people in the history of the institution: George Larkin, Bill Beane, Ben Donatelli, Jim Grace, Jim Reynolds, Jackie Mara, Dorothy Rodgers, Stanley and Pat Spirou, Paul Schneiderman, Carolyn Holman, George Telioin, Lou D’Allesandro and John Miles.
Looking for opportunities as other schools had issues, Shapiro attracted talent from Franconia College when it closed and its president, Ira Goldenberg, and School of Human Services talent, Michael Swack, joined the college.
Shapiro oversaw the development of the campus with bond issues from the new New Hampshire Education and Health Facilities Authority, which scared the heck out of the board when it seemed the school was obligating itself to a $3 million loan commitment for 30 years, in order to build a new athletic facility and housing units, only to have that loan refinanced for a great deal more a couple of years later.
Shapiro was president of New Hampshire College until the late 1980s, when issues of growth caught up with him, and it was time for a change. The same William S. Green, who helped his mother in 1952, became chancellor and with his colleagues righted the ship. Green was succeeded by Richard Gustafson, who strengthened the academic offerings of the college and changed its name to Southern New Hampshire University and embraced online education as the successor to Shapiro’s nontraditional methods.
After him, Paul LeBlanc led the University to become one of the fastest-growing universities in the country, primarily because of the growth in its online enrollment. That growth has enabled the school to make major improvements on campus, which now is a very impressive place.
At his memorial service on campus Jan. 19, family and friends remembered what Shapiro contributed to what now is one of the major economic and educational institutional entities in New Hampshire, but more importantly, how one man contributed to it.
In my tribute to him, I said, “You do not sum up a life by the amount of money left or by the things someone leaves behind, but by what he accomplished and the children he leaves. By these measures, Ed Shapiro in many ways left a major legacy, to SNHU and his three fine children. May he rest in peace.”
New Hampshire should remember him.
Brad Cook is a Manchester attorney. The views expressed in this column are his own. He can be reached at bradfordcook01@gmail.com.
