Back in the day (once upon a time) when I attended Stony Brook the tuition was nominal and with my NY Regents Scholarship, it was free except for fees and books, and books were WAY cheaper then. This left me free upon graduation to attend graduate school and later to start a family without the sword of debt over my head.
Today I am retired, again being able to adequately fund that over the years and not having to divert those funds into paying off student debt. I hope that my small efforts can contribute to that for the current generation of students. My wife and I paid for my eldest son to go to med school without debt and my younger son to attend law school on the same basis. Stony Brook (then in Oyster Bay/Brookville) enabled me to get a great education with small classes and a lot of faculty contact on a beautiful campus. Neither of my parents, who grew up during the depression, finished high school (my father had a GED). I was the first to attend and graduate from college. My message to current students: Good luck with your years at Stony Brook and with your career —none of which will turn out as you plan it now.
—Henry Ostman ’63
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