Time Capsule

By Sally Jarzab

“The daily acts of an administrator are written in water,” wrote Chancellor Samuel P. Capen following his retirement in 1950 after 28 years as UB’s first full-time, salaried chancellor. “The wind passes over them and they are gone. But the results of his administrative policy, if it is positive and constructive, remain.”

What also remains: the stately desk at which Capen is pictured here, circa 1927, inside his private office suite in Hayes Hall.

At the time, Hayes Hall had just been overhauled from its former incarnation as the county almshouse and hospital into the administrative building for the rapidly expanding university, with all new equipment and furnishings. Matters overseen by Capen at this desk supported the growth of UB’s physical campus, its enrollment, its schools and programs, and its stature.

Made by the Kittinger Furniture Company, a Buffalo-founded manufacturer renowned for its Colonial Revival and Early American-style furniture, the desk is believed to have been used by most, if not all, top administrators since Capen. It did go into safekeeping with University Archives for a time in the mid-1990s but was back in the presidential suite (which moved to Capen Hall on the North Campus in 1977) when President Tripathi took office in 2011.

A matching side table, seen in the picture near the window with an early telephone on it, was later rediscovered in a neighboring office and reunited with its counterpart. A bookcase is also part of the set, and still in use. As for the chair, and who will fill it next—that is yet to be written.