Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

Page 32 text:

Lehigh ' s Daddy. Asa Packer 2S

Page 31 text:

u I h 2 1 1 0. (J w I h 27

Page 33 text:

E? I T0MF VPh J tstorp of tl)c Hclngl) WLniotxgify EHIGH UNIVERSITY was chartered by the Legislature of Penn- sylvania by act dated February 9, 1866. It was formally opened at exercises held September 1, 1866. The founding of Lehigh was the outcome of a movement inaugu- rated in 1865 by the Hon. Asa Packer of Mauch Chunk, with the purpose of affording education in the learned professions as then recognized, and likewise training in technical branches, the importance of which was then just becoming apparent in the economic readjustment follow- ing the close of the Civil War. Judge Packer was a pioneer in a most significant phase of industrial development, the transportation of coal from the anthracite mines of Pennysylvania to tide-water. He became the recognized master of canal boat transportation. Then, foreseeing the supplanting of boat by train as a carrier of coal, he built the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton, later extending it to the port of Perth Amboy and deeper into the coal region of the Wyoming Valley and into Xew York State. The crowning work of the life of this great industrial leader whom President McCrea of the Pennsylvania Railroad once termed conspicuous among great men and public benefactors was his conception of a university in the Lehigh Valley which should provide for a complete professional education. His purpose, as set forth in the first Register of Lehigh University, included this statement: While such an institution promises to be of peculiar benefit to the Lehigh Valley, and to the numerous other districts of Pennsylvania which are rich in mineral resources of many kinds, its usefulness will not be thus limited. It is intended for the benefit of the whole country: the instruction which it imparts will enable its graduates to play intelligent parts in exploring and developing the resources of all portions of the United States. From its early years to the present, the University fulfilled this aim; Lehigh has always been more than local in enrollment, appeal and influence. Judge Packer ' s initial donation to Lehigh included S.500,000 and a large tract of land, to which he added largely during his lifetime and by his will. He did not permit his name to become a part of the corporate title of the institu- tion, believing, as has recently been brought out, that, the new University would be called upon for service far in excess of what could be done by the original endowment, and he did not intend, through self-glorification, to deny others the opportunity of forwarding the work. Since its foundation, the equip- ment and resources of Lehigh have steadily increased, due to the continued interest of the University ' s trustees, alumni and friends. J