University Times

In 1962, Raymond N. Zoerkler, a Bradford geologist with the Hanley and Bird Company, Robert Cole, Bradford Hospital’s chief administrator, and others, petitioned Pitt to open a regional campus in the Bradford area.

That fall, then-Pitt Chancellor Edward H. Litchfield, following a feasibility study, announced that the University would expand its reach into the western and north-central regions of Pennsylvania by establishing three new regional campuses to serve as two-year “feeder schools” to the Pittsburgh campus and to complement the Johnstown regional campus, which was founded in 1927.

The move was largely motivated by the expectation of baby boomers reaching college age and taxing Pitt’s ability to handle the influx. A secondary consideration was competition with Penn State, which was expanding its regional reach at about the same time.

In 1963, Pitt opened the regionals in Bradford, Greensburg and Titusville (See University Times Aug. 28.), which are planning events this year to celebrate their 40th anniversaries.

Following are some major points in the Bradford campus’s institutional history.

Litchfield named Donald E. Swarts, then dean of Pitt-Johnstown, as the first Bradford campus president. J.B. Fisher, president of Kendall Refining, was named the first chairman of the advisory board. Swarts began recruiting a faculty.

Individuals and organizations in Bradford and surrounding regions contributed $758,000 toward Pitt-Bradford’s founding.

During summer 1963, Pitt-Bradford purchased Hampsher House from Bradford Hospital, converting it into classrooms, laboratories, a library and student lounges.

The newly established campus began as a feeder college that offered the first two years of a Pitt undergraduate education. The first class included 143 full-time and 145 part-time students. By 1964, the student body had swelled to 380 full-time and 100 part-time students. To help accommodate expansion, the campus purchased the 125-room Emery Hotel on Main Street in Bradford to provide the campus’s first student housing.

In 1967, J.B. Fisher announced that Witco-Kendall Corp. would donate 78 acres of land on the site of the former Harri Emery Airport for the construction of a campus. At the same time, the City of Bradford and Bradford Township announced they would make a 33-acre parcel of adjacent land available to Pitt-Bradford for development as a recreation area.

In the early 1970s, Pitt-Bradford set its sights on constructing the campus and moving its academic focus from two-year to four-year programming. The college used the $1.5 million in regional private monies it was able to raise to “seed” nearly $14 million’s worth of capital projects, including the construction of two academic buildings: Swarts Hall and Fisher Hall.

Over the next two decades, the campus added other facilities including a residence hall complex, a sports center, outdoor recreational and athletic fields and a student union.

Under the leadership of Bradford’s second president, Richard E. McDowell, who at age 29 was the youngest college president in the country in 1973, the campus began offering four-year programs. (McDowell served as president until 2002.)

The first degree program (A.S. in petroleum technology, 1975) was followed in 1979 with the designation of baccalaureate degree-granting status.

Due in large part to a Title III grant, Pitt-Bradford added a significant number of bachelor’s-level programs beginning in 1985: biology, computer science, geology, history/political science, chemistry, economics, psychology, mathematics and communication.

In 1988, the campus opened the T. Edward and Tullah Hanley Library, named in appreciation of a $1.2 million gift from artist and philanthropist Tullah Hanley.

Campus expansion got another boost in 1995 when the college’s Campaign 2000 raised more than $10 million, surpassing its goal by more than 25 percent. A major factor in the campaign’s success was the Blaisdell family of Bradford, owners of Zippo Manufacturing. Their dollar-for-dollar matching gift program for the college’s fine and performing arts building project accounted for nearly $3.5 million.

Today, the campus offers 26 baccalaureate degrees and 12 professional programs of study. Students also can choose from 37 minors, two associate degrees, credential programs in education and nursing, and a number of one-year certificate programs.

UPB has 22 buildings on 170 acres, more than 1,300 enrolled students and over 5,500 alumni. Pitt-Bradford also boasts an endowment of $20 million.

Last week the campus celebrated its 40th anniversary on alumni and family weekend. Events included the opening of Blaisdell Hall, the new communications arts and fine arts building, which adds 18,500 sq. ft. to the campus at a cost of $4.5 million, and the dedication of the Frame-Westerberg Commons, its student center, a $9.5 million expansion and renovation project.

Pitt-Bradford also installed formally its third president, Livingston Alexander, former provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Kean University in New Jersey, who follows Donald Swarts and Richard McDowell. (William Shields served as interim president following McDowell.)