Faunce, William H.P. (1859 - 1930)
Role: Ninth PresidentDates: 1899 - 1929
Portrait Location: Sayles Hall 108
Artist: Stone, Seymour M. (b. 1877)
Portrait Date: 1924
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 34 1/4
Framed Dimensions: 43 1/2
Brown Portrait Number: 117
Brown Historical Property Number: 599
William H. P. Faunce, an 1880 graduate of Brown, became the university's ninth president and its first president of the twentieth century. Faunce studied theology in Massachusetts, and he served as Baptist pastor in both Springfield, Massachusetts and in the Fifth Avenue Church in New York City. He was offered the Brown presidency in 1899 following the tumultuous final years of Elisha Benjamin Andrew's presidency. He served the university in that capacity for thirty years, its longest presidency and, by many accounts, one of its most uneventful. Although academically a "cautious caretaker," Faunce completed an enormous expansion of the physical campus during his tenure, with the addition of a new president's house, Van Wickle Gates, Rockefeller Hall (Faunce House), the John Carter Brown Library, the John Hay Library, three laboratories, Sayles Gym, and seven additional classroom and residence halls The university endowment increased from $1.7 million to $9.9 million, and the size of the student body and faculty tripled. Faunce was much loved by the students and acquired the nickname "William Horse Power Faunce."
The artist, Seymour Stone was born in Poland in 1877 and later studied in Sweden. He immigrated to New York as a young man. The painting was commissioned by The Providence Chamber of Commerce and presented to Brown upon completion in 1924.