Privilege and Obligation
“My involvement in the
community and with the University is part of my commitment to support
the institutions that contribute to this society.”
— Hans Naumann
Hans Naumann knows a great deal about opportunity, because he has experienced worlds in which there was none.
Naumann, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Albany-based Simmons Machine Tool Corporation—North America’s largest worldwide supplier of wheelshop equipment—was a boy in Nazi Germany, both before and during World War II.
“The national socialist system of Germany condemned groups of people, irrespective of those people’s attitudes,” said Naumann, now 64. “It took away their freedom. They didn’t have a chance.”
As such, Naumann never blamed the western Allies for the bombings that sent him and his family into shelters. He felt differently, however, toward the Russians, whose troops occupied his home province of Saxony, imprisoned the 10-year-old and his family in the Castle of Colditz, confiscated their estate, and deported them to a former prisoner-of-war camp on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen for one year.
Eventually, his family resettled in what became West Germany, and Naumann began the kind of success story that only democracy affords. “I have seen, being now an American citizen, the kind of advantages this country offers its citizens to develop their own lives in freedom,” he said Naumann saw that development realized with his own children, three of whom attended Albany: Michelle, B.A.’87, a German major who now teaches language in Bonn, Germany; her twin sister, Jacqueline, who left Albany to pursue a career in fashion design at the American University in Paris; and Irene, who received her master’s in public administration in 1990.
“Michelle, Jacqueline and Irene all received their high school degrees in Germany after attending grade school in the U.S. So their first real touch with the American higher education system came at the University at Albany,” said Naumann. “They were very nervous, but the University was very good for them. Michelle, in fact, received her graduate degree at the University of Wurzberg, with which Albany has had a long-standing exchange program.”
That
alone would be explanation enough for Naumann’s generous support of
Albany, including a gift of $50,000 to equip a 40-station digital workshop
in the University’s new library. He is also co-chairman of the University’s
private fundraising campaign to equip the structure. The library officially
opened in October 1999 at ceremonies that included Gov. George Pataki,
Naumann and other donors to the new library.
Naumann said he is also motivated to help where he can, however, by a centuries-old family concept of honor. “I was taught since childhood that the more you are privileged, the more you are obligated. The two should be in balance. My involvement in the community and with the University is part of my commitment to support the institutions that contribute to our free and democratic society.
“As a state university, the University at Albany has an important role helping students who do not come from wealthy families to develop themselves and change their lives.
“In addition, as a university doing important research in the sciences, it contributes to the entire nation. Without the scientific development done within our universities, industry will not obtain the technology it needs to stay competitive in the world.
“The new library, which is devoted to the sciences, is therefore at the very heart of fulfilling the mission of educating students to become tomorrow’s leaders and to advance society.”
Naumann moved to the U.S. after earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1960 from the University of Hamburg. In 1966, he founded the Hegenscheidt Corporation in Troy, Michigan, pioneering the new manufacturing techniques of roller finishing and deep rolling in the auto industry.
In 1970, as president and C.E.O. of Hegenscheidt GmbH in West Germany, he led the company to a position as the largest railway wheelshop equipment builder in Europe. Leaving Hegenscheidt and returning to the U.S., in 1984 he acquired the Simmons Machine Tool Corporation, whose customers include such mass transit systems as Amtrak, Beijing Transit in China, the Indian Railway and the London Underground system. Under Naumann’s leadership, the company has added three affiliates: two local firms, and one located in Chemnitz, part of the former East Germany.
“It is rewarding to see young people in the former Eastern Bloc countries finally accepting the American democratic system after obtaining their freedom,” said Naumann.
