The story of Florida Institute of Technology is an improbable one. In 1958, a young physicist named Jerry Keuper, drawn to Cape Canaveral by the space program, decided to launch a university.  Initially, Keuper and his confederates called their school Brevard Engineering College (BEC).  The first contribution to the school was 37 cent.  Classes met in three rented junior high school rooms.  In 1959, local school officials blocked the continued use of the rented classrooms because Florida Tech's faculty and students did not believe that segregation had any place in education.  The college found a temporary home in an old church and a decommissioned Navy barracks.  In 1961, the university moved to its permanent home in Melbourne.

Many thought the college would not succeed.  Fortunately, there were a few men and women who disagreed.  Werner von Braun was one.  He called the university "Countdown College." Vorgil "Gus" Grissom, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, was a cherished friend.  In 1962, Grissom received the university's first honorary doctorate in space science at the June commencement exercises.  In 1964, the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (SACS) granted the college accreditation.  In 1966, the college changed its name to Florida Institute of Technology.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Florida Tech grew at a phenomenal pace.  Dormitories sprang up overnight.  New programs in biology, chemistry, aeronautics, business, psychology, environmental studies, science education, oceanography, the humanities, and communication joined the flourishing engineering and science curriculum.

In the 1980s, leadership of the university passed to a new generation.  Since 1988, Florida Tech redoubled its effort to provide a quality education for its students. During the past decade, the university has committed itself to becoming a world-class center of research.  The first signs of success are showing themselves in extraordinary work in medicine, pharmaceuticals, meteorology, and the engineering sciences.

There is something magical about this university.  Florida Tech radiates a kind of energy and vision, passion and intensity.  Florida Tech has made a tradition of confounding skeptics and realizing its dreams.

Used with expressed permission from Dr. Gordon Patterson, author of Florida Institute of Technology; the College History Series, Arcadia Publishing, 2000.             

Click here for a timeline of the history of Florida Institute of Technology.