Pace University - History

History

In 1906, the Pace brothers founded the firm of Pace & Pace to operate their schools of accountancy and business. The first class of Pace & Pace was composed of thirteen men and women who were taught by Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles Ashford Pace. Taking a loan of $600, the Pace brothers rented a classroom on one of the floors of the New York Tribune Building, today the site of the One Pace Plaza complex. Due to rapid growth over the succeeding years, the school was forced to relocate several times around the Lower Manhattan area.

The Pace brothers' school was soon incorporated as Pace Institute. In addition to its school in New York, the Pace Institute expanded nationwide featuring courses in accountancy and business law in a number of cities throughout the United States. 4,000 students were taking the Pace brothers' courses in YMCAs in the New York-New Jersey area. The Pace Standardized Course in Accounting was also offered in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. Eventually, concerned about quality control at distant locations, in the 1920s the Pace brothers divested themselves of their private schools outside New York in order to devote their full attention to the original school in lower Manhattan, eventually to become one of the campuses of Pace University.

Taking on the legacy after the death of his uncle Charles and father Homer (in 1940 and 1942 respectively), Robert S. Pace became the president of Pace. In 1947, Pace Institute was approved for college status by the New York State Board of Regents. Then, in 1951 the college purchased its first campus building located at 41 Park Row in Lower Manhattan. This building, designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in March 1999, was the 19th-century headquarters of The New York Times. In 1963 the Pleasantville campus was established using land and buildings donated by the then-president of General Foods and Pace alumni and trustee Wayne Marks and his wife Helen.

In 1966, U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and New York City Mayor John Lindsay broke ground for the One Pace Plaza Civic Center complex, with then Pace president Edward J. Mortola. The former New York Tribune Building at 154 Nassau Street, across from 41 Park Row, was demolished to make way for the new building complex.

The New York State Board of Regents approved Pace College's petition for university status in 1973. Shortly thereafter, in 1975, the College of White Plains (formerly known as Good Counsel College) consolidated with Pace and became the White Plains campus which at the time was used to house both undergraduate courses and Pace's new law school created in that same year. In September 1976, Pace began offering courses in Midtown Manhattan in the Equitable Life Assurance Company building (now AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company) on Avenue of the Americas, and moved once before moving to its current location in 1997. Briarcliff College was acquired in 1977 and became the Braircliff campus. A graduate center was opened in 1982 in White Plains, New York, and in 1987 the Graduate Center moved to the newly-built Westchester Financial Center complex in downtown business district of White Plains; which at the time of its opening, Pace's graduate computer science program was the first nationally accredited graduate program in the state of New York.

In 1994, all undergraduate programs in White Plains were consolidated to the Pleasantville-Briarcliff campus, and the White Plains campus on North Broadway was given to the law school; resulting in the University's Westchester undergraduate programs in Pleasantville and its Westchester graduate programs in White Plains. Finally in 1997, Pace purchased the World Trade Institute at 1 World Trade Center from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

On March 5, 2006, Pace students, alumni, faculty, and staff from all campuses convened on the Pleasantville campus in a University-wide Centennial Kick-Off Celebration; there was a Pace Centennial train, provided free of charge by the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority), to take Pace's New York City students, alumni, faculty and staff to Pace's Pleasantville campus. Former President Bill Clinton received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Pace during the ceremony, which was held at the Goldstein Health, Fitness and Recreation Center. Following reception of the honorary degree, he addressed the students, faculty, alumni and staff of Pace, officially kicking off the Centennial anniversary of the University.

Since her last visit in celebration of Black History Month in 1989, Dr. Maya Angelou again visited the Pace community on October 4, 2006 in celebration of Pace's Centennial. Two days later, on October 6, 2006, (Pace's Founders Day) Pace University rang the NASDAQ stock market opening bell in Midtown Manhattan to mark the end of the 14-month centennial celebration.

On May 15, 2007, Pace University President David A. Caputo announced his early retirement from the presidency on June 3, 2007. The Board of Trustees of Pace University appointed Pace Law School dean Stephen J. Friedman to the position of interim president. Friedman has been dean and professor of law at Pace since 2004. He has also served as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as co-chairman of Debevoise & Plimpton.

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