The incredible Rowan University was founded as the Glassboro Normal School in 1923 due to the shortage of trained teachers in state of New Jersey. The little town close to Philadelphia, Glassboro, was chosen to be the location of it because of the effort put by the Glassboro locals. They raised money for 25 acres of land and donated to build the Normal School in their hometown. The Glassboro Normal School was inaugurated in 1923 by welcoming its first class of 236 female students.

Rowan University transformed from a normal school to a comprehensive public research university. The first milestone of the normal school was in 1934 when it introduced a four-year program providing the student with opportunities to learn. Soon after, it went under major transformation at the time by changing its name to New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro in 1937. It was again renamed to Glassboro State College in 1958 after introducing additional buildings and academic programs such as reading disabilities and physical therapy.

Glassboro came to limelight when the Cold War Glassboro Summit Conference between US president Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin was conducted from June 23-25 in 1967 in Hollybash Mansion on the campus of then-Glassboro State College. Hollybash Mansion now is being as a small museum of Whitney family and the former president of the university.
 

The massive transformation of Glassboro State College into nationally recognized Rowan University was possible by reformative $100 million gift in 1992 by a New Jersey resident and industrialist, Henry M. Rowan.

He donated such huge amount with the vision to create an engineering program at Glassboro State College where his philanthropic donation would make the greatest impact for the most people. The College was able to make his vision real within three years as it welcomed its first engineering class in 1996. Rowan university was ranked #23 for the Best Undergraduate Engineering Program by U.S. News & World Report. The engineering program is one of the fastest growing program at Rowan University as it introduced the clinic courses which comprises of two years of research allowing students to engage in real world problems while learning the basic concepts. Rowan University is ranked #91 among national public research universities in 2019 by U.S. News & World Report Rankings. Indeed, Rowan University utilized the gift wisely to make its name national with incredible academic programs.

References:

https://www.rowan.edu/home/about/our-past-present-future/rowan-history
https://engineering.rowan.edu/aboutus/facts-at-a-glance.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_University#/media/File:RowanUniversityHollybushMansion.jpg