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By Fran Farlow Where does the history of Gaston College begin? Pick a date, any date … Some say Gaston College traces its roots as far back as 1882, when Professor Marcus Lafayette Little was elected principal of Gaston High School in Dallas. Little transformed that high school into Gaston College, which opened its first term in 1884 with 216 students. The high school was too small; in 1884 construction began on a new three-story brick building to become Gaston College. That college was not only not church-supported — a distinction for its time — it was co-educational, a highly-suspect concept of education in the late 1800s. At that time the college competed directly with an older institution, Concordia College of Conover. There was pressure to make it a college for boys, and Gaston a college for girls. In 1889, the institution became Gaston College for Girls; however, the higher departments remained co-educational. The school closed as a college in 1905, the building was used as the home of Dallas Grammar and High Schools, finally a store; then fire destroyed the building in 1927. The impressiveness of the architecture of that original college still remains however, since the original Gaston College inspired the design of the Lawrence Wyss Information Center tower on today’s campus. Since the college of 1884 did not sit on land occupied by today’s college, some say the true beginnings of Gaston College date back to 1952. On that date the Gaston Technical Institute was established, a unit of the College Extension Division of North Carolina State University. If that history is traced back as far as it goes, Gaston Technical Institute could even claim 1945 as its founding date. That’s when N.C. State established a technical institution at Morehead City, a school which closed at that location and was moved to Gaston County in 1952. Another earlier institution which played a part in Gaston College’s history was the Industrial Education Center, established as a part of the Gastonia City School system in 1957. It was the forerunner of Gaston College’s Vocational Division. Both those institutions were merged with Gaston College in 1965. The restructured institution was placed under the Community College Act of 1963, and Gaston College took its first steps toward becoming the complex institution it is today. Gaston received its charter as a community college under the 1957 Community College Act — the last college approved under that act, which included community colleges that later became UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmingon and UNC-Asheville. Although the great seal of the College shows the date of 1963, the College considers 1964 as the date of its beginnings since that was the date of planning the community college, celebrating the 35th anniversary by publishing a book outlining the college’s history, a book written by Ken Sanford.
Pick a name, any name… The names of those instrumental in the making of Gaston College reads like a listing of the county’s oldest and most honored names…Hoffman, Rhyne, Costner, Mauney, Friday, Craig, Beam, Stowe, Efird, Cline and more. William C. Friday, who grew up in Dallas and later served as the distinguished president of The University of North Carolina system for 30 years, said that when he was growing up Dallas had a nucleus of people who had an appreciation for colleges and higher education. "And there was always a place for books and music," Friday noted. "The intellectual pace kept it alive," he said, adding, "There was a residual yearning there. "There was never a time that I was unaware that if I didn’t go to college I would be denied certain things in life," he said.
Lincoln campus added In June of 1990 the Lincoln County campus was designated a satellite of Gaston College. It was first the site of a learning laboratory in 1969 in the Reinhardt Building on Courthouse Square. That role expanded to include adult basic education, the GED program and continuing education. In 1992 the abandoned Lincolnton High School became the site of the Lincoln County campus.
Looking to tomorrow Today’s college curricula is broad and deep, offering degrees in art education, business administration, business education and marketing education, criminal justice, English, English education, health education, history, physical education, political science, psychology, social science secondary education and sociology. Or students can prepare for Associate or Applied Science degrees in a host of learning courses. They can earn diplomas in everything from air conditioning to welding technology. Or they can earn certificates in many courses from industrial management technology to medical transcription. Predictions suggest that Gaston College, with such a rich heritage, also has a very promising future. Source: Information contained in this article came from "Building a Future from the Past, The History of Gaston College" by Ken Sanford |
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