You could say the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology is not the same school it was when it started 70 years ago, and you’d be right.

The college, celebrating a 70^th anniversary this year, has moved a few times since it started back in 1953 out of founder Walter R. Garrison’s Upper Darby home.

Eventually, it found its way to a 14-acre campus in Media, PA.  

The school has also shifted its focus in the types of career courses it teaches—from engineering to a greater emphasis on healthcare.

You’ll see different students these days, too. Gone are the mostly male students fresh out of high school who may have been told they were not traditional college “material.” They have been replaced with mostly low-income, underserved women, and some single parents.

So, if it seems like the school has changed a great deal, you’d be right.

And you’d be wrong, too.

Because at its core the mission of P.I.T. envisioned by Walter Garrison remains the same, a vision that came from its founder—to give a helping hand to anyone who needs it so they can succeed in a career of their choosing.

The school is proud of its student successes, boasting nearly 5,000 graduates working in the Delaware Valley.

Meet the founder

Walter Garrison was an aeronautical engineer doing airplane design work for Boeing when he started P.I.T.

“He realized there were many technical jobs that you didn’t need the kind of education he had in order to contribute to the engineering process like designing a plane,” said his daughter, Susan Garrison, who recently was named to P.I.T.’s board of trustees.

Walter Garrison was the first in his family to go to college, made possible through the GI Bill after his time spent in the U.S. Navy.

He always had an aptitude for math and used the GI Bill to pursue an aeronautical engineering degree at Kansas University.

Garrison wanted to help others who didn’t have that advantage by giving them math and drafting skills so they could get jobs and earn decent livings for themselves and their families.

“The very first classes were taught by him and others he hired in our home in Upper Darby on West Chester Pike,” Susan Garrison said.

Classrooms did move later to a separate building where about a dozen students attended evening classes studying mathematics and technical subjects like aircraft stress analysis.

Walter was intimately involved in the college from its inception until his death in February 2019. “He was simultaneously the funder and guider of P.I.T.,” said Tom McDuffie, current chairman of the board of trustees who has been associated with the school since 1978.

“Walter was the brains behind the whole operation and had the financial wherewithal to support it.”

By the time the 1960s rolled around, there were a variety of teachers and even a yearbook, operating from a building on Samson Street near the 69^th Street Terminal, Susan Garrison said.

Meanwhile, Walter Garrison had gone on to start a successful engineering technical services company, CDI Corporation, with two friends. 

By the time Walter Garrison retired at 70, CDI was an international company worth a billion dollars.

P.I.T. had since become a nonprofit which Garrison continued to support.

“He poured money into it. He really believed in it even though it wasn’t a money-making operation,” Susan Garrison said.

Susan described her father as practical but passionate in his own way.

“He was very patriotic, and he was grateful for every day,” always recognizing his obligation to give back for all he had received, she said.

Growth of the school

By 1980, the school was getting larger, offering associate degrees and it had received a Middle States accreditation from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The school wanted to bring a collegiate feel to its classes to demonstrate the seriousness of its curriculum and the school’s commitment to its students.

In the mid-1980’s, they bought the former Academy of Notre Dame property in Media and transferred the school there.

“They weren’t going to a shopping mall. They weren’t going to an old grade school. They were going to an impressive campus location,” McDuffie said.

For the students

These days, the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology focuses on people who didn’t excel in high school, who are a little older and have decided they want to improve their life situation, McDuffie said.

That means giving a single mom or a financially disadvantaged student a chance to get an education, providing supportive services and scholarships to make that education possible.

Students may need tutoring, or they may have to learn from home while they care for a child. Most will need financial help and job placement services.  

P.I.T. has been able to levy its long-term relationships with area companies to find jobs for their students.

“Because our mission is student-oriented, job-oriented, success-oriented, far more than it is to a particular academic area, we’re very different than most academic institutions,” McDuffie said.

“My dad would get tears in his eyes at graduation,” Susan Garrison said. “These women get successful jobs and then their children can go on and achieve their own successes.”

There is a shared mission embraced by P.I.T. President Matthew Meyers, board members, faculty, and staff to help these students succeed.

There are many success stories.

Former P.I.T. President Will Robinson started off as a basketball player at Villanova University but had trouble with his academics. He ended up at P.I.T., which inspired him to continue on, earning an engineering degree and becoming one of the most successful company owners in Delaware, McDuffie said.

Another former board member came to P.I.T. thinking if she could just earn an associate degree, she would be a success.

“Now she has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering,” and has been the chief engineer on several bridge-building projects”, McDuffie said.

A reactive board

“We have a tendency to push new reactive programs,” McDuffie said of the board. “Forever, we have tried to be a leader, not a follower in these programs so that we’ve looked for them to help students help themselves.”

P.I.T. started offering online distance, or remote learning, in 2015, five years before COVID-19 made it mandatory.

The school has since been named one of the top 10 distance learning programs in the state of Pennsylvania.

Among its 13 associate degree programs and two certificate programs is a newer one in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, more commonly known as ultrasound.

P.I.T. graduated its first Practical Nursing students in 2007 and today the program is the largest in the school’s portfolio.

By 2019, it was the first regionally accredited college in the U.S. to offer an undergraduate degree in Cannabis Business and Cannabis Health Therapies.

By 2021, P.I.T. was offering its first bachelor’s degrees in nursing and business administration.

Looking ahead

The school has plans to upgrade its facilities and grow its affiliations with four-year colleges.

There are also plans to do building modifications on campus to further encourage a hybrid approach to learning, both distance learning and in-person.

“My father was not one to dwell on the past. You look at where you are, how you got there, and you look forward. The values stay,” Susan Garrison said.

Visit here to learn more about P.I.T.

Help P.I.T. celebrate its 70^th birthday and continue to serve students for another 70 years by making a gift here.

---

A P.I.T. graduate talks about her experience at the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology.