Talk:Asa Packer

Comment
The statement "For the first 26 years of Lehigh's existence, the university was tuition free." is not factual and requires further investigation. I can say for certain that in 1867 the tuition was $90 for the year, as I own a handwritten letter from President Coppee to a perspective student outlining the costs of attending the university. Michael Kowalski (talk) 02:47, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I agree. I believe Lehigh commenced tuition free schooling shortly after, but not at, founding. It then went for some 20 - 25 years as tuition free, until the economic trouble of the 1890's. If I can find exact dates, I while place them in. (John G. Lewis (talk) 15:29, 28 February 2015 (UTC))

The article does need some help... I'll see what I can do; I believe W. Ross Yates wrote a small biography on Asa Packer. His history of Lehigh Un. from the founding until 1982 was I thought well done. (John G. Lewis (talk) 15:39, 28 February 2015 (UTC))

I have added into the article, roughly doubling its size. And I decided not to delete everything and start anew, as my own sources were not strong, and that there were elements of the original article that I could not verify, nor refute (though they did indeed seem plausible). Dr. Yates writes that his whole life is difficult to source well, and therefore write about. It consequently seemed logical merely to add. If there is anything further I can do, let me know. Btw, the book, "Asa Packer, A Perspective" is only a 21 pg. essay. (John G. Lewis (talk) 01:11, 10 March 2015 (UTC))

I have reread some early parts of W. Ross Yates's excellent book "Lehigh University; A History of Education in Engineering, Business and the Human Condition". He was a Government/Political Science professor at Lehigh, though with an historical/philosophical edge. A friend joked with me, because Dr. Yates was so good at lecturing, classroom queries were "politely declined." He deserves to be recognized as an historian, in his own right I believe, and merely for this book. It is rich, dense, well composed and reads fluently, and is reasonably well sourced, as far as I can tell. It must stand as Lehigh's definitive history, for the institution's first 117 years (to the end of the Lewis presidency, 1982). In any event, let me just state here that I believe Asa Packer's "initial gift" is being slightly misunderstood, or that there is a danger of this. True, he gave 500,000 at the initial launch... but this was only to get the University off and functioning: it was never his intention to limit the gift to this. He continued to give, whether it was for another building, to fund free tuition (1871 - 1891), professor salaries, & etc. One of the means he used was interest off his shares in the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Furthermore, it should be recognized that he commenced giving late in life: Mr. Packer only lived 14 years after the founding of the school. I am therefore suggesting that his gifts should be viewed in a more integrated manner, that is, everything given during his lifetime, to and including what was left to Lehigh in his will. This would be truly massive: I am estimating that the entire gift, or 'gifting', excluding what the relatives of Packer would do on their own initiative, was at least 4 times the initial gift, possibly as much as tenfold more. This would place the gifting to Lehigh, broadly speaking now, and in today's money (2015), in the neighborhood of 1 billion dollars. I use a multiplier of 250. In any event, people can perform their own calculations. And what was so costly was not the land, but the buildings, equipment, professors, and then even the students. All this without any State aid. Packer can thus be viewed, and respected, for shouldering the whole University, for a period of 14+ years. (John G. Lewis (talk) 17:03, 18 March 2015 (UTC))