William the Silent (New Brunswick, New Jersey) | university, statue

 university, statue

The bronze statue of William the Silent (1533-1584), Count of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and national hero of the Netherlands, was unveiled on the present Voorhees Mall on June 9, 1928, an appropriate reminder of the university's Dutch origins. The 2,000-pound statue was the gift of Fenton B. Turck, a prominent physician and biologist, who had acquired the statue in the Netherlands shortly after World War I. Dr. Turck stored William in the basement of his laboratory at 428 Lafayette Street in Manhattan for eight years and together with Leonor F. Loree (Class of 1877), Rutgers trustee, conspired to anonymously present the statue to the University, selecting the Holland Society as the agent to perform the deed. Known affectionately to the students of Rutgers as "Willie the Silent" and "Still Bill," the Prince of Orange has kept a watchful eye on the University scene for over a sixty years.