Lehigh University

Asa Packer was born in ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry in 1805, entered Pennsylvania’s canal business in the 1830s and financed the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1850s.⁠[1]

In the fall of 1864 Packer asked Bishop William Bacon Stevens to plan an institution and pledged $500,000 as its endowment. In 1865 he gave 57 acres on Bethlehem’s South Mountain and $500,000 to found the university, which the university describes as the largest gift made to an educational institution up to that time.⁠[2][1]

On July 27, 1865, the board of trustees held its first meeting at the Sun Hotel in Bethlehem. It established five schools, a school of general literature and four scientific schools (civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining and metallurgy, and analytical chemistry), and chose Henry Coppée as the first president.⁠[2]

Pennsylvania approved the university’s charter on February 9, 1866; because state approval then required legislative action, it was adopted by the legislature and signed by James R. Kelly, David Fleming and Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin. The university opened on September 1, 1866.⁠[3]

The university began with 39 students.⁠[1]

From 1871 to 1891 the university charged no tuition; after the financial crisis of the 1890s reduced the value of the Lehigh Valley Railroad stock that had been its main source of income, tuition was reinstated in 1892. Total enrollment never exceeded several hundred students during the 19th century.⁠[2]

Asa Packer died on May 17, 1879, and the university held its first Founder’s Day in October 1879.⁠[1]

In the fall of 1918 women were admitted to graduate programs for the first time.⁠[2]

In the 1960s the university acquired about 500 acres in the Saucon Valley south of South Mountain, which became the athletic campus named for the alumnus and benefactor Murray H. Goodman, with Murray H. Goodman Stadium and the 6,000-seat Stabler Athletic and Convocation Center among its facilities; the Saucon Valley athletic complex and Sayre Field were developed during Harvey A. Neville’s presidency.⁠[4][1]

In 1971 the university’s undergraduate programs were opened to women.⁠[2]

Bethlehem Steel opened the $25 million Homer Research Laboratories complex in 1961. In December 1986 it sold the university five of the complex’s eight buildings and the surrounding land, keeping three buildings as the Homer Research Laboratories. The College of Education moved into Iacocca Hall in 1987, and the campus was officially dedicated on June 6, 1991.⁠[5]

The Mountaintop Campus comprises 670 acres of woodland and a 72-acre research site with eight buildings, housing the College of Education, several science and engineering departments and programs, the ATLSS and Energy Research Centers, Army ROTC and Ben Franklin TechVentures.⁠[4]

In May 2013 the university acquired Buildings B and C on Mountaintop, beginning the Mountaintop Initiative, and launched the Mountaintop Summer Experience that summer. In 2018 Building C was renovated for the Department of Art, Architecture and Design, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and several research centers.⁠[5]

Joseph J. Helble took office as the university’s 15th president on August 16, 2021, and was inaugurated on October 15, 2021.⁠[1][6]

Helble earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Lehigh with highest honors in 1982 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. He was professor and chair of chemical engineering at the University of Connecticut, dean of Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private institution of higher education in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded by Eleazar Wheelock, it received a royal charter on December 13, 1769. The 1819 Supreme Court ruling in Dartmouth College v. Woodward preserved its private status. Alongside undergraduate liberal arts education, Dartmouth includes the Geisel, Thayer, Tuck and Guarini schools. It enrolled 7,273 students in fall 2025 and held a $9 billion endowment at June 30, 2025. Sian Leah Beilock, in office since June 2023, remained president as of October 2026.Open the full entry’s Thayer School of Engineering for 13 years and provost of Dartmouth from 2018 to 2021; his research concerns the environmental impacts of fossil energy use, focusing on mercury and particulate air pollutants.⁠[7]

Amendments approved by the board of trustees and filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State took effect on March 1, 2023, the first amendments to the charter in the university’s history. They gave all trustees voting status by eliminating the Corporate, Appointed and Alumni trustee classes, changed the president’s title from “head, or chief master” to “chief executive officer,” and renamed the “President of the Board” the “Chair of the Board of Trustees.”⁠[3]

As of November 2026 Joseph J. Helble is president, and Nathan Urban is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.⁠[6]

The university has five colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health, and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering & Applied Science.⁠[7]

The university has three campuses in Bethlehem totaling 1,600 acres; the roughly 360-acre Asa Packer Campus on the north slope of South Mountain is the original campus and the main academic campus.⁠[4]

The university’s presidents have been Henry Coppée (1866–1875), John McDowell Leavitt (1875–1880), Robert Alexander Lamberton (1880–1893), Thomas Messinger Drown (1895–1904), Henry Sturgis Drinker (1905–1920), Charles Russ Richards (1922–1935), Clement C. Williams (1935–1944), Martin Dewey Whitaker (1946–1960), Harvey A. Neville (1961–1964), W. Deming Lewis (1964–1982), Peter Likins (1982–1997), William C. Hittinger (interim, 1997–1998), Gregory C. Farrington (1998–2006), Alice P. Gast (2006–2014, the first woman president), Kevin Clayton (interim, 2014–2015), John D. Simon (2015–2021) and Joseph J. Helble (2021–present).⁠[1]

Lehigh University: Official website: https://www2.lehigh.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/lehigh-university/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/lehighuofficial (opens in a new window).⁠[1]