Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

Page 7 text:

9 3 9 04 GO ASA PACKER conceived the idea of a university in South Bethlehem in the Fall of 1 864 and a year later, on July 27, 1 865, he called the first meeting of the Board of Trustees at the Sun Inn, Bethlehem. Lehigh University became a definite project at that meeting when Asa Packer made the trustees a gift of $500,000 and 57 acres of land on South Mountain. On February 9, I 866, the Pennsylvania legislature incorporated the completed organization under the name of The Lehigh University. Forty men were admitted to the school on September 1 , 1866, with but a single building, Christmas Hall, and a faculty of five men. From this small group Lehigh has grown to an enrollment over 1800 and a faculty of 180 men. There are now 19 buildings, 180 acres of land and an endowment of $6,000,000. One has to sit back and wonder if Asa Packer ever dreamt that his idea would be fulfilled to the great extent that it has. AT BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

Page 9 text:

The 1939 Epitome is presented to the stu- dents of Lehigh University as the editors ' con- ception of a yearbook that will perpetuate their recollections of HAPPY DAYS AT LEHIGH. In compiling this Annual, we have aimed at the presentation of a volume dedicated to authentic and accurate portrayal of the pleas- ant and social side of our college life that has taught us the joys of good-fellowship. This volume will have failed in its aim if those present students who may scan its pages when another decade shall have passed, do not first smile — then grin — and finally burst out into hearty laughs as they review their Lehigh days in retrospect. Here ' s to HAPPY DAYS!