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1917 – present
Founded: Indiana University's Extension Center opened in Fort Wayne in 1917 with 142 students and 12 courses, on the third floor of the courthouse. Floyd Neff directed it from 1918 to 1951. In 1939 it moved to 1120 S. Barr St, a former Lutheran institute building. Purdue University opened its own University Center downtown in 1941, and for seventeen years the two universities ran rival extension operations in the same city.
Course: The merger process began in 1958 through the Indiana–Purdue Foundation — Purdue president Frederick Hovde, IU president Herman B Wells, IU trustee John Hastings and Purdue trustee Alfred Kettler Sr. among its movers. The joint campus rose on 114 acres at the city's northeast edge: Indiana University Fort Wayne's history dates the ground-breaking to October 18, 1961, while Wikipedia's account dates the start of construction to October 18, 1962 — the day and month agree; the year does not, and both are carried. IPFW opened September 17, 1964; its Education Building, renamed Kettler Hall in 1973, was dedicated August 27, 1964, and the first four-year degrees came in 1968. Purdue administered the campus, with IU running the medical programs and the library. At dissolution the campus held 520 acres.
The split: The Fort Wayne Developmental Center land division of 2007 (IPFW 40 acres, Ivy Tech 45) foreshadowed the end of the joint experiment. The two boards approved a split in December 2016 and finalized it in June 2017; on July 1, 2018 IPFW became Purdue University Fort Wayne, and the health-sciences programs became Indiana University Fort Wayne, whose first term began August 20, 2018.
Sources:
- Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne; Purdue University Fort Wayne (Wikipedia) — 1917, 1941, 1964, 2018.
- Indiana University Fort Wayne, institutional history — the 1961 ground-breaking; the 2018 first term.