| River Campus | Hylan Hall |
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| Mathematical
Sciences Building in 1971 |
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 |
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| Ray P. Hylan | Plaque in Hylan Hall. |
Advertisement
for Ray Hylan School of Aeronautics, from Campus Times, May 25, 1947, page 8. |
Construction began on a new Mathematical Sciences Building in 1969 and it was opened in September 1971 with financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation..
In 1982 it was renamed Hylan Hall in honor of Rochester aviation pioneer Ray P. Hylan. As one of America’s early aviators, he founded the Ray Hylan School of Aeronautics on a 215-acre plot south of Rochester, which is now Marketplace Mall. The school became one of the first aviation schools in the country, making a name for Hylan as one of the pioneers of aviation.
During his years as an
aviator, Ray Hylan taught his close friend James P. Wilmot how to fly and
the two became business partners in Marketplace Mall and other
ventures. It is therefore appropriate that Wilmot
Hall faces Hylan Hall on the Engineering Quadrangle.
References
1968 "UR
to Construct Mathematics Building with Space Science, Chem-Bio Complex,"
Campus Times, February 9, 1968, Page 1.
1969 "Math Center Building Begins; 1970 Completion for Project," Campus Times, May 20, 1969, Page 9,
1969 "Work Begins on new Mathematical Sciences Building," Currents, May 26, 1969.
1970 "Thompson Announces Revised Construction Schedule for Major Building and Renovation Projects," Currents, October 15, 1970.
1971 "Relocated,
Not Split Town," Campus Times, September 27, 1971, Page 1.
New Mathematical Sciences building opens.
1982 "UR mathematics building named for flier-businessman Ray Hylan," Democrat and Chronicle, September 20 1982, Page 18.
1982 "Tower Named After Hylan," Campus Times, September 28, 1982, Page 1.
1983 Ray
Hylan (1906-1983) Grave in Mt. Hope Cemetery
Aviation Pioneer. He was considered an excellent pilot by the time he was
18 but at the age of 21 was severely injured in an exhibition flight crash
in which his 18 year old co-pilot died. His love of flying won over the
risk and by the late 1930s he was operating his own airport and the Hylan
Flying School, teaching regular and exhibition flight. He founded and ran
one of America's first air freight services and in 1959 donated his own
personal Boeing F4B-4 Navy fighter to the Smithsonian.
2014 "Ray Hylan - Aviation Pioneer," by Adriana Natali, Epitaph, 34(1) (Winter 2014)
© 2021 Morris A. Pierce