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March 4, 2011

Senator Rockefeller honors WVU Parkersburg on its 50th anniversary.

CONTACT: WVU Parkersburg President Marie Foster Gnage, 304-424-8200.
 

Photo - Photo of WVU Parkersburg President Marie Foster Gnage and B.L. Coffinder, former director of the Parkersburg Branch of WVU.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) congratulated West Virginia University at Parkersburg on its 50th anniversary and entered a statement in the Congressional Record Thursday (March 3) in celebration of the college's founding.

"For five decades now, West Virginia University at Parkersburg has provided affordable and accessible higher education opportunities to the citizens of the Mid-Ohio Valley and the state of West Virginia," Senator Rockefeller noted. 

"Thousands of West Virginians have started or resumed their college educations at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.  It truly is 'the community's college'," he said.

"I salute Dr. Marie Gnage and the past Presidents at West Virginia University at Parkersburg for a half century of excellence in education, training and community engagement."

March 3rd is a significant date in the college's early beginnings, WVU Parkersburg officials noted.  On that date in 1961, the WV Legislature passed legislation allowing the creation of branch colleges.  The Parkersburg Branch of WVU opened six months later.  The campus community and area residents observed the milestone with a campus brunch on Thursday (March 3).  B.L. Coffindaffer, who served as director of the branch from 1963 to 1971, spoke of his memories of the branch's early days.

Now an affiliated WVU institution, WVU Parkersburg has grown from 104 students in 1961 to more than 4,500 students today.  A year-long series of events are under way in celebration of the college's founding.

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