King’s College President Fr. Looney gives closing remarks during a 2024 graduation ceremony.
Times Leader File Photo
With the annual fall arrival of students at institutions of higher learning, it is worthwhile to note how extraordinarily blessed Luzerne County is in post-secondary education — and why.
Our colleges and universities did not spring from the demand of elite, wealthy residents wanting a place of distinction where their children could be taught more than the working-class masses got in public schools. Quite the opposite. People of humble origins arrived with limited resources, determined to help the children of low-wage laborers reach their full potential.
Consider Misericordia University, which traces its roots back to Catherine McAuley, an Irish Catholic laywoman who used her inheritance to ultimately found the Sisters of Mercy in her homeland. As the school website notes, the sisters “vowed to be of service to the impoverished, sick and uneducated.” They came to the U.S. in 1843 at the request of the Bishop of Pittsburgh, quickly spreading across the nation and setting up in the Wyoming Valley in 1875. In 1924, they established the first four-year college in Luzerne County — initially for women, but turning co-ed in the 1970s.
King’s College began when the Congregation of Holy Cross accepted an invitation from Bishop William Hafey to launch a four-year school. Per the King’s website: “Sons of coal miners and men returning from the war were to be given a broad-based liberal education in the Catholic tradition that provided intellectual, moral, and spiritual preparation to assist them in leading satisfying and purposeful lives.”
In December 1945, Congregation of Holy Cross Rev. James Connerton, a former University of Notre Dame official, received a train ticket, typewriter and $200 and headed to Wilkes-Barre. He hired a secretary, set up office in a former tailor’s shop on Main Street, and in nine months opened the doors to King’s College, initially for men, but later co-ed.
Though non-denominational, Wilkes University’s roots date back to a group of Baptists who established the “University of Lewisburg,” later known as Bucknell University. Bucknell opened a junior college in Wilkes-Barre in 1933, and in 1947 it became the independent, four-year Wilkes College. Like King’s and Misericordia, it was established to teach the poor children of the region’s laborers.
Luzerne County Community College had purely public roots. Pennsylvania passed the Community College Act in 1963, allowing Luzerne County to act as a sponsor of a new 2-year college that opened in 1967. While the other three institutions expanded to include post-graduate programs, LCCC has always worked to fill the needs of many who couldn’t afford four-year degrees. It has repeatedly supplemented its mission by entering into agreements with other colleges and universities, allowing LCCC grads to be admitted to four-year programs upon completing their time at the Nanticoke-based college.
We also have two Penn State campuses, though sadly, Penn State Wilkes-Barre is set to close in the spring of 2027. And we have campuses of other post-high-school institutions established to fill distinct niches.
Institutions of higher education are struggling with (and sometimes succumbing to) rapidly shifting demographics, finances, and job market demands. Yet we like to think most colleges and universities in our area have one advantage as they work to survive in an increasingly unpredictable world.
They were born to help the disadvantaged, the forgotten, the people for whom many other doors were closed. With luck, those roots will help them always keep their doors open.
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