The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, also known as Pitt-Bradford or UPB, is a four-year, baccalaureate degree-granting, state-related university institution that is a regional, residential campus of the University of Pittsburgh located in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Pitt-Bradford was listed among the Best Baccalaureate Colleges in the North by U.S. News & World Report in its "America's Best Colleges 2010" annual college guide, is named to the list of "Best Colleges in the Northeastern Region" by The Princeton Review, and ranked 8th in the nation for satellite campuses with impressive reputations of their own in 2013 by The Best Colleges.HistoryThe 1960sBefore the establishment of Pitt-Bradford, there were no institutions of higher education in the northwestern/northcentral region of Pennsylvania. This led Raymond N. Zoerkler, a Bradford geologist with the Hanley and Bird Company, to see the need for an educational resource and came up with the idea in 1962 for a regional campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Supported by Robert Cole, Bradford Hospital's chief administrator, and others, Zoerkler wrote a letter to Edward Litchfield, who was then chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. Zoerkler proposed that Pitt establish a campus to serve this area of Pennsylvania. On October 16, 1962, Chancellor Litchfield announced that there indeed was a need for accessible quality education in the region and a new Pitt campus was born. Litchfield appointed a committee of community leaders to serve as the advisory board for the new Pitt campus in Bradford. He named Dr. Donald E. Swarts, dean of Pitt-Johnstown, as the first president. J.B. Fisher, president of Kendall Refining, was named the first chairman of the Advisory Board. Swarts immediately began to work with the local Advisory Board to open the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
