PITT-BRADFORD: Due to the recent Labor Day holiday weekend, we missed an opportunity to recognize The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s Founders’ Day.

On Saturday, Sept. 3, Pitt-Bradford celebrated their 59th Founders’ Day.

As the story is told, in 1962 a Bradford geologist with the Hanley and Bird Company, Raymond Zoerkler saw a community need for an educational resource, which inspired him to come up with an idea to rectify this need. With help and support from Bradford Hospital’s Chief Administrator, Robert Cole and other prominent Bradford residents, Zoerkler penned a letter to Edward Litchfield, who was the current chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh.

The letter to the University of Pittsburgh’s chancellor proposed that the university establish a campus to serve this area of Pennsylvania.

The Bradford community embraced the idea, contributing major donations. In the early 1960s there were no institutions for higher learning in the northwestern/ north central regions of Pa. Those young people who did pursue to further their education often left the area and did not return after graduating.

On Oct. 16, 1962, Litchfield announced his agreement that there was a need for accessible quality education in the northern region of Pennsylvania — and a new Pitt campus was born. Less than a year after Litchfiled’s announcement, on Sept. 3, 1963 the doors opened to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s first class of students.

The newly established campus was a two-year college that offered undergraduate education, offering starter and transfer program to 143 full-time students and 145 part-time students.

Individuals and organizations in Bradford and surrounding areas contributed a total of $758,000 in 1963 — enabling the college to become firmly rooted in Bradford.