In her remarks at the signing ceremony at Lehigh, Matherly noted that Lehigh founder Asa Packer, in the decade before he established the university, had visited Saxony to study the mining and manufacturing techniques used there. She said Packer was impressed by what he saw in Saxony and believed that many of the region’s manufacturing and engineering practices could be applied in the United States. When he established Lehigh, she said, he operationalized that belief when he encouraged a curriculum focused on engineering and science to train graduates who could lead economic growth and innovation in the Lehigh Valley.
Helble also spoke about Lehigh’s founder, identifying Packer as a business leader, industrialist and visionary who, he said, “changed the very notion of what higher education could be. At Lehigh, one did not choose between studying the classics and studying…
