Howell Memorial Science Building
By the late 1950s, the science facilities, which were used by both the university and the
academy, became increasingly impractical for the growing number of students. On October
29, 1959, ground was broken for the Howell Memorial Science Building, and work was
completed the following spring in 1960. An addition to the building was completed in
1990, and five years later a renovation of the interior was completed.
The building bears the name of Lillian R. Howell (1876-1958), a resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was a good friend and faithful contributor to the university. After hearing Dr. Bob Jones Sr. preach on a radio broadcast from New York City, she began corresponding with him. Although she never visited the school, Lillian took a special interest in the university and wanted to have a part in the training of Christian young people. She frequently contributed toward students' tuition payments, and it was through the generous donation of her estate that the Lord provided the needed funds for the science building, named in her memory.
In addition to classrooms, lecture halls, and faculty offices, the Howell Memorial Science Building contains the Roder Memorial Coral Collection; a fully equipped Computer Science lab; modern laboratories for instructions in biology, chemistry, physics, and electronics; and full facilities for the teaching of the Family and Consumer Sciences. The planetarium, which seats about 100 people under its 30-foot diameter dome, simulates the sunrise and sunset and reproduces the night sky. The main entrance of the building is overshadowed by a 2-ton mosaic, designed and constructed by art faculty Emory Bopp, Darrel Koons, and Carl Blair. The mosaic, which contains 50 thousand porcelain chips, presents symbols of subjects to be taught in the building with the words of Psalm 19:2, "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."