Howard Cotterill Sheperd papers

Howard Cotterill Sheperd, chairman of the DePauw University board of trustees from 1950 to 1955, died February 17, 1980 in Bronxville, New York, after a distinguished career that included direction of one of the nation's largest banks. He was 85. The 1916 DePauw alumnus rose from a college-graduate trainee to chairman of the board of the old First National City Bank of New York. He spent 43 years with the First National Bank and one of its predecessor organizations, the National City Bank of New York. He retired as chairman of the First National City - today known as Citibank - in 1959 when the bank was the country's third largest. It was during his climb to the bank's top post that he assumed a leadership role at the University. He was elected to the board of trustees in 1936 and in 1950 he succeeded alumnus Roy O. West, one-time Secretary of the Interior, as chairman of the DePauw board. He was to serve in this capacity for five eventful years. During this time he was involved in the selection of Dr. Russell Humbert as president of the University and the subsequent launching of what was then DePauw's largest fund-raising campaign in history. The Memorial Student Union Building was dedicated during this period, and Mr. Sheperd was instrumental in founding and quietly supporting, among other projects here, the DePauw Archives. His interest in education emerged in other forms. After retirement from the public spirited citizens that announced its intentions to buy WNTA-TV, a commercial TV station in New York, and turned it into the city's first non-commercial educational television station. He served for the next six years as head of the organization that owned and operated the non-profit station (now known as WNET). He earned the gratitude of educational broadcasters everywhere when, in the face of extreme financial pressures at the station, he affirmed the corporations' intention to expand - not reduce - cultural programming. Mr. Sheperd, who was born in Vincennes, Indiana, was director of several major corporations and was interested in advancement of American foreign trade. In 1957 his contributions in this area were recognized when he was honored by the National Foreign Trade Council. A 1948 winner of the University's Old Gold Goblet, Mr. Sheperd is survived by his wife, the former Lois von Behren '17; a daughter, Jean Elizabeth Putnam; and a son, David Albert, '51. A son, Lt. Howard Sheperd, Jr. '43 died in action on Iwo Jima in the Pacific in 1945.