50 YEARS OF DCCC
HALF-CENTURY OF COLLEGE VALUE CELEBRATED ON MARPLE CAMPUS
Celebrating its five decades of higher education, Delaware County Community College was the center of festivities Saturday as administration, faculty and students lauded its last 50 years while looking ahead to the next.
With 28,000 credit and non-credit students, more than 80 instructional programs, about 850 faculty members and nine campuses in Delaware and Chester counties, Delaware County Community College officially opened Nov. 10, 1967 – but the path to its success was anything but easy.
“It was a struggle to open it,” said Kathleen Breslin, DCCC’s vice president of institutional advancement.
Breslin wrote a 96-page book on the college’s history entitled “Great Yesterdays, Greater Tomorrows: A Fifty-Year History of Delaware County Community College 1967-2017.”
In it, she describes how the college came into existence.
In 1963, the Pennsylvania Legislature enacted Act 484, the Community College Act, into law, which created public community colleges. A year later, the Delaware County Council for Higher Education was formed under the leadership of William Taylor Jr. of Haverford, P.E. Ennis of Ridley Park and Dr. N. Dean Evans of Springfield.
A survey was sent out to thousands of students and parents throughout the county and more than 57 percent of the 13,600 returned indicated a desire for a community college.
However, the idea of an extension for Pennsylvania State University was also circulating at the time and had the support of the Delaware County commissioners.
There was great debate as to which of the two should emerge here in Delaware County. Meetings were held, a flier was published in the Springfield Press in which the college was said to require a $9 million bond issue with an additional 20 mills of tax for county taxpayers while the extension was predicted to be $1.2 million for the county with no increase in taxes.
When the state Board of Education approved the plan for DCCC in January of 1967 and 21 county school districts agreed to sponsor the institution, plans moved forward for the college.
Ironically, the community college did not halt the Penn State extension. Breslin added, “We both won because we’re both open.”
The first president of DCCC was Dr. Douglas F. Libby, who promised the school would open that September – and it did, at the Ridley High School with 307 students.
In 1968, the college entered into an agreement to purchase the Gideon Stull estate in Marple for $1.2 million as its permanent home. Parts of the property were owned by Dr. Jonathan Morris, a physician, who practiced in Newtown Square and provided medical care at the Battle of the Brandywine.
The property was subjected to an intense zoning fight as Marple Township declined to approve a special zoning exception for the college and the case went to the state Supreme Court.
In the meantime, classes were moved to a former orphanage, the Dante School in Concordville.
In 1969, the state Supreme Court sided with the college and construction of building the Academic Building and the Learning Support Building began in 1972 at an estimated cost of $18.5 million. On Nov. 10, 1974, the Marple college campus was dedicated.
Yesterday, the school celebrated with a large white tent, activities and tours, a time capsule and a full schedule of events for the day.
“It’s a culmination of a lot of things,” DCCC president Dr. L. Joy Gates Black said.
“I’m meeting a lot of people who were here for so many years and did so many wonderful things and laid the foundation for this. So, to have them come back and see that we carry that on and that we’re moving forward and we’re continuing to move forward is really important to me.” — DCCC president Dr. L. Joy Gates Black
“I’m meeting a lot of people who were here for so many years and did so many wonderful things and laid the foundation for this. So, to have them come back and see that we carry that on and that we’re moving forward and we’re continuing to move forward is really important to me.”
One of those returning to the campus was Joe Galese, one of DCCC’s founding faculty.
“My employee number was 20,” the retired music professor said. “I developed the whole program. I loved it, it was exciting. How important was this to my life? This was my life. Absolutely my life. I loved it. I truly loved it.”
He shared how he got to Delaware County.
“I came in from New York,” Galese said. “I had experience with community college, Queensborough Community College and I was all of 23. I was just finishing my Master’s.”
He said they wanted him to bring some of the Big Apple to Delco – and he said he did, establishing an orchestra and several choruses.
“The area was very strange to me coming from (a) metropolitan (area),” he admitted, “but I enjoyed stopping by the side of the road and seeing cows and horses.”
Galese remembered his early teaching days before retiring in 2008 after 40 years.
“I remember when we had a lot of court cases,” he said. “They’d make an announcement, ‘Please support us by showing up.’ And we would show up just to show that they had backing.
“Then, on the Dante School, there was this era of bomb threats,” he continued. “The state police would come.”
And, everyone was expected to pitch in those days.
“When the snow came, the heavy snow, we had to help clear it,” he said. “There were no prima donnas there. Everybody participated. It was wonderful.”
Galese even remembered his proudest moment.
“The majority of the faculty were men and when the association got hold of the pay scale, they learned that women were paid less,” he said. “So, we had a faculty meeting.”
He said they were asked, “Will you accept retarding your salary so it could equalize women’s pay?”
The vote, Galese said, came down “unanimously, honest to God, unanimously. I was so proud of that group, unbelievable.”
That pride continues today as Black said she found DCCC a place not to miss.
When she heard about the presidency opening, she did research on the school.
“The more I found out, the more it sounded like just the perfect match for me,” she said, highlighting that an updated strategic plan was in place with tenants that resonated with her and the needs of higher education.
Since taking the helm a year ago in June, she spoke of what it means to lead the institution.
“Being the first woman at this college, the first person of color to be president here is heartwarming because I’ve just been embraced by everyone,” Black said. “And, I think it’s not so much about me. It’s about a love for the college and that’s coming across clearly.”
Tanya Franklin, who has taught English at DCCC for a decade, shared her love for the college.
“I love that it’s a closeknit community regardless of how large the campus is or how many people are here,” she said. “People seem to know each other, they help each other out. It’s not a matter of it being faculty being separate from administration being separate from staff. Everybody knows everybody, everybody helps everybody.”
When asked what the 50year milestone meant to her, Franklin responded, “I think it’s an example of where we’ve come and where we’re headed – the idea of hope.
“This is something that’s bringing everyone together and saying, ‘You know what? You can do it – whatever your dreams are, whatever you might want to do in life, this is a wonderful place to get started with that,’” she said.