During NYIT’s early years, when breaking new educational ground was ubiquitous and it was easy to get lost in dreams, one man was relied upon to bring pragmatism to the process. He, too, embraced the idealistic adventure that was at the heart of a young college but kept its goals and strategy grounded in reality. David G. Salten—the man behind the hall at the Old Westbury campus—died Oct. 1, 2006, at the age of 93.

Salten served as executive vice president and provost at NYIT from the late 1960s until 1990, where he faithfully championed the college’s mission to provide “access to opportunity to all qualified students,” creating a legacy of openness that exists today.

To King Cheek, Ph.D., NYIT professor of social science, Salten was a personal advisor and fellow adventurer. Many of the first NYIT administrators were young and ambitious, spending their days exploring new ways to teach and to learn. “David was a gyroscope, a compass who always brought wisdom and common sense to any discussion,” says Cheek, who began his tenure serving on the NYIT Board of Trustees with Salten before they both became administrators. “He had an uncanny ability to take ideas that were not clearly understood and make them work. He knew how to implement and he taught that to other people as well.”

Such were the lessons that Salten imparted to a young English professor whom he hired more than 30 years ago. "No person has done more to shape the NYIT of today than David,” says Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., president of NYIT. “And as an institution we remain in his debt, a debt he would never claim, as his life was one long story of selfless service to others."

The eponymous hall on the Old Westbury campus is just one of many NYIT landmarks that illustrate how instrumental Salten was to the development of the institution. He helped to design the Old Westbury and Central Islip campuses, found the building that is now the heart of the Manhattan campus, and played a key leadership role in almost every policy created by the institution during the 1970s and 1980s.

NYIT left a lasting impression on Salten as well. It was here that he met his second wife, Adrienne O’Brien, Ph.D., a professor of communication arts. “At 93, it’s hard to say someone died unexpectedly, but he was ageless in intellect and curiosity,” says O’Brien. “I don’t think that there was a topic he didn’t explore.”

Salten’s career in education spanned six decades and impacted the very nature of education in the United States. It was Salten whom civil rights lawyer (and later Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall called upon as an expert witness in the landmark 1957 Little Rock, Ark., desegregation case. And, as superintendent of schools in the early 1960s, Salten brought his controversial views supporting desegregation to New Rochelle, N.Y., the first northern school district to be brought before the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter.

Salten never spoke of the hate mail he received during the trials, but he did keep the letters in his files, perhaps as a reminder of human frailty. He called his civil rights work the most important of his career. And he always strove to do more. During a conversation with Cheek, Salten said, “We have succeeded in removing racism and sexism from the front door, only to find it at the bottom of the staircase, blocking the way.”

He spent the rest of his life figuring out ways to help minorities get up the stairs. Salten fought the infirmities of age and health, continuing to drive until 92 and keeping a calendar full of appointments. Scrawled script in his pocket calendar shows meetings far into the future, many concerning the basic human rights he spent his life protecting.

In addition to his wife, Salten is survived by three daughters, eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.