University Times

Five leaders in the history of Pitt's Bradford campus (UPB) were honored April 6 during a reception hosted by campus President Richard McDowell.

As part of the festivities commemorating UPB's past, portraits of the late Donald Swarts, the late J. Bertram Fisher, Robert Bromeley and William Higie also were permanently placed in the president's conference room.

UPB professor emeritus Robert Laing was the fifth leader honored during the reception. His portrait already hangs in the special collections room of Hanley Hall.

Swarts was the founding president of the UPB, which opened in fall 1963. Swarts Hall on the campus bears his name.

Fisher was the first chairperson of UPB's advisory board and a commonwealth trustee of the campus from 1966 to 1973. A local civic and industrial leader, Fisher helped locate a site for UPB. Fisher Science and Engineering hall is named in his honor.

Bromeley, another local businessman, was a charter member of UPB's advisory board and succeeded Fisher as board chair in 1972.

Higie has been chair of UPB's advisory board since 1974. A retired vice president of the Forest Oil Corp., he is currently the director and vice president of the Bradford Educational Foundation, an organization established to aid UPB.