Graduates return, reminisce at WTI/WACC Reunion

Forty-five alumni visited campus for a WTI/WACC Alumni Reunion last month, reconnecting with one another and with a campus that is continually transforming.

Twenty-two of the attendees were graduates of Williamsport Technical Institute – the name of the institution from 1941 to 1965. Eighteen alumni of Williamsport Area Community College – established after the state enacted its Community College Act – attended, along with five graduates of Pennsylvania College of Technology. The transition from WACC to Penn College occurred in 1989.

Recognized as the earliest graduates to attend the event were two alumni from the class of 1958: Chalmer Van Horn and Ralph Mills. At the time, the main campus and Aviation Center together encompassed seven buildings on about 39 acres.  Today’s main campus is about 125 acres.

Some of the programs still being offered from their time on campus (as listed in the 1954-55 Catalog of Courses) are accounting, aviation, automotive, business administration, building construction, heavy equipment technology and heavy equipment operations, diesel technology, architecture, engineering design (which Van Horn would go on to teach), electrical, machine tool technology and welding. Among those that have been replaced are agriculture, glass bending and neon sign servicing, office machine servicing, sign painter, radio and television servicing, and secretarial training.

“We are incredibly proud of our roots,” President Michael J. Reed told attendees. “We wouldn’t be who we are if it wasn’t for you. The reputation we have in industry is because of the work you’ve done.”

Also speaking to the alumni were Tracey Amey, director of the Madigan Library, and Nicole S. Warner, librarian for archives and special collections, who emphasized the importance of their connection with the college. “You carry with you the stories of what it meant to be here,” Amey said. “You connect the past of this institution with the present.”

The reunion, hosted by Alumni Relations, included lunch in Le Jeune Chef Restaurant and tours of the Center for Career Design, where alumni heard from recent graduates Madison N. Sweeney ’25, college relations and foundation assistant, and James Fretz ’26, a college relations student assistant, as well as Shelley L. Moore, senior director of the Center for Career Design, about the breadth of career services offered to students; and The Gallery at Penn College, where they viewed work by graphic design students.

Following lunch, alumni were invited to visit the Bardo Gymnasium, the emergency management & homeland security department’s MILO simulator, and the Williamsport LaunchBox.