Editing Asa Packer (section)

== Lehigh University==
{{Further|Lehigh University}}
Packer endeavored to found a university in the [[Lehigh Valley]], an industrial region located in eastern [[Pennsylvania]].{{sfn|Yates|1992|pp=27–28}} The university was located on [[South Mountain (Eastern Pennsylvania)|South Mountain]] in [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], which then was a [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] religious community that later became the global manufacturing and corporate headquarters of [[Bethlehem Steel]], the second-largest steel manufacturing company in the world for most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1865, Packer gave $500,000 and 60 acres (243,000 m²), later increased to 115 acres (465,000 m²), for the establishment of a technical trade school for engineers. In 1866, the year following the end of the [[American Civil War]], the school, named [[Lehigh University]], was chartered and began instruction.<ref name="EB1911"/> The first main building, Packer Hall, was completed in 1869.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=17}} With Packer's generosity, Lehigh was able to offer education tuition free for its first 20 years from 1871–1891. Economic troubles in the 1890s forced the university to then reverse this policy.

After the initial gift of one half million dollars, Packer continued to support the university and took an active role in its management.{{sfn|Yates|1992|pp=38–39, 41–42}} His will bequeathed $1,500,000 as an endowment for the university, $500,000 to the university library, and granted the university an interest of nearly one third in his estate upon its final distribution.<ref name="EB1911"/>