George F. Comstock

[4] He was a judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1856 to 1861, elected on the American Party ticket to fill the remainder of the unexpired term of Charles H. Ruggles who had resigned in October 1855.

In 1861, he ran for re-election on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by the Union candidate William B. Wright.

In 1870, he donated fifty acres of farmland on a hillside to the southeast of the city center, then valued at $60,000, to establish the university.

[6] Comstock intended Syracuse University and the hill to develop as an integrated whole; a contemporary account described the latter as "a beautiful town ... springing up on the hillside and a community of refined and cultivated membership ... established near the spot which will soon be the center of a great and beneficent educational institution.

[8] Three buildings on campus—the Crouse Memorial College and the Hall of Languages, and the Pi Chapter House of Psi Upsilon Fraternity—are individually listed on the National Register.