William S. Hofstra

William Sake Hofstra was born on May 31, 1861, in Holland, Michigan.[1][2] He was the son of Sake Hofstra and Wilhelmina Zageweg, who were Dutch immigrants from Franeker in the province of Friesland.[2][3] The name "Hofstra", which is a short form of "Hoflandstra", means "from the courtyard/farmyard/garden" in Frisian and goes back to an ancestor from an estate near the village of Grou.[4]

Hofstra grew up in various cities in Michigan.[2] His family moved from Holland to Grand Rapids in 1863, where his father worked as a baker, and to Muskegon in 1867, where his father worked as a hotel keeper.[2] In 1875, his family built a home and a hotel in Muskegon.[2] A few years later, in 1880, Hofstra's mother died from typhus.[2]

In 1881, Hofstra married Anna Laura Morton and they had two daughters, one of whom lived to adulthood.[2] Hofstra and his wife divorced, and he remarried to Kate Mason Wiliams, a widow originally from Boston, Massachusetts, who was seven years his senior, and they had no children.[2] Hofstra was involved in various lumber businesses in Michigan, Canada, New Orleans, Florida, and New York.[2] William Hofstra worked in the lumber business with Howard Brower as a partner in the Nassau Lumber Company and was a director of Price Brothers Company, another wood and paper products company based in Canada.[5]

In 1903, Hofstra and his second wife, Kate Mason (1854–1933), purchased the 15-acre Van Vranken Estate in Hempstead, New York, and hired H. Craig Severance to design their retirement home there, moving into the house in 1904.[6] To honor his Dutch roots, Hofstra called the estate "The Netherlands," which is now known as Hofstra Hall.[6] Hofstra died in 1932 and Kate died the following year.[7]

Kate Hofstra bequeathed the family home and funding for a trust to honor her husband and left other bequests to St. George's Episcopal Church in Hempstead and to various friends and family.[4][7] In 1935, the trustees created a branch of New York University in the former Hofstra home, and by 1963, the institution was renamed Hofstra University.[7] The school's colors and the Hofstra seal honor the Dutch heritage of Hofstra.[8][9]