Heiserman Built Architecture Career on Howard Foundation

By Kelvin Childs

Homecoming at Howard University was special for Michael Heiserman (’63, Bachelor of Architecture). While he was deep into his studies at the School (now College) of Architecture (CEA), Heiserman helped build a float for the annual Homecoming parade for the Army Corps cadets because he was in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He also borrowed the car that towed the float from an area Cadillac dealership.

His photos of that time are part of several precious memories of Heiserman’s days at Howard. He knew early on that he wanted to be an architect. But after he graduated from high school in 1957, the native Washingtonian had only two local options where he could study the field: Catholic University and Howard University. As he recalls, tuition at Catholic was five times the cost at Howard, “so my daddy told me, ‘Okay, you’re going to Howard.'” 

Washington’s public schools were segregated as Heiserman grew up, and as a white Jewish man, he found himself in the minority at the historic HBCU. 

But he remembers Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, then the University president, greeted Heiserman’s freshman architecture class at Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in September 1957. “It was hot and there was no air conditioning,” Heiserman said. There were 35 students in that group, he said; only seven of them graduated from CEA, and he is the sole survivor today. 

“At first I was a little lost, not only because of the racial situation but also because as with all freshmen, college was a new experience. It didn’t take long, however, to get in the swing of things. I guess it was the friendliness of the students and teachers that made it so easy,” Heiserman wrote in “Farewell to Howard University” for the May 1963 issue of Howard Magazine. 

Heiserman commuted from home to campus on the streetcars that used to run on Georgia Avenue. The architecture program was a five-year curriculum, and Heiserman immersed himself in campus life. So much so that “it took me six years because I took some extra subjects, and I think when I graduated I had over 200 credit hours,” he said.

After freshman year, Heiserman earned a four-year scholarship from the company where his father worked. He joined the baseball team for three years. He wrote a column, “I Heard It in the Drafting Room,” for Howard Engineer magazine. He went to Bison football games and cheered on fellow engineering student Howie Williams, who turned pro with the Green Bay Packers while still at Howard and was on their 1962 roster as a rookie when they won the NFL Championship.

In all, Heiserman is proud of his experience at the Mecca. “I know that I got an excellent education at Howard,” and so did his brothers Norman, who played baseball and football, and Berton, who was on the wrestling team. 

It’s from that pride that Heiserman wants others to benefit as he has. “Well, I can only cite my own example, that I feel the need to give back a little bit. I’m proud of the education I got, and I know where it came from.” He’s been a donor to CEA, “and I feel if other students feel the way I do, they should perhaps do a similar gesture,” he said.

Heiserman also collected lots of Howard photos, documents and memorabilia, including a letter from University founder Oliver Otis Howard that bears his signature. He donated two collages incorporating several such items to the University in 2012 to then-President Sidney Rabeau and professor Bradford Grant of CEA. 

Two days after graduation, Heiserman married his wife of 60 years, Maryln, an American University student and also a native Washingtonian. Several of his classmates and three of his professors attended the wedding. After he had a brief time in active Army service and a long career as an architect in the Washington, D.C., area, Michael and Maryln Heiserman retired to Boynton Beach, Florida. She passed away in 2023.