Glenn G. Bartle was the founding president of what is now Binghamton University. He came to the region in 1945 to serve as dean of the newly established Triple Cities College (TCC), in Endicott, N.Y.

Glenn G. Bartle was born in Borden, Indiana, on February 7, 1899. He attended public schools and graduated from high school in 1916. He then entered Indiana University, where he earned all three of his degrees: Bachelor of Arts in geology (1921), Master of Arts in geology (1923), and Ph.D. in stratigraphy and economic geology (1932). He did, however, spend at least one academic year at the University of Chicago (1924-1925). From the beginning it seems Bartle was torn between his passion for geology and his interest in higher education. He participated in a number of natural gas exploration ventures, usually as a consulting geologist, throughout the Midwest and West during the 1930s. At the same time, Bartle was teaching science and geology for most of the 1920s. Then, in 1933, he became Professor of Geology at the University of Kansas City; in 1937, he became Dean of Liberal Arts at the same institution. This would be his first experience in a long career in college administration.

It was during the Second World War that Bartle began to gravitate more fully toward college administration. As a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he was stationed at Swarthmore College and placed in charge of a V-12 Unit. The V-12 program was designed to speed up the training of commissioned naval officers during the war. Most interesting, however, is the fact that Swarthmore was also one of the schools designated for training Chinese Nationalist officers who were fighting the Japanese alongside the United States. Bartle was tasked with developing their English-language skills so that they would be able to continue their studies in either naval administration or shipbuilding. In 1946, Bartle received the Medal of the Cloud Banner from Chiang Kai-shek for his role in this special program.

After the war, Bartle was offered the position of Dean of Triple Cities College (TCC) in Endicott, New York. TCC was an extension of the more established Syracuse University. Bartle immediately embraced his role as leader of this fledgling institution, and it was not long before he rallied the local community behind his efforts to make TCC a four-year, liberal arts college in the emerging State University of New York (SUNY) system. In 1950, Bartle’s dream came true. TCC became Harpur College, part of SUNY and no longer affiliated with Syracuse University. Throughout the 1950s, Bartle worked relentlessly to establish Harpur College as a premier liberal arts college. He simultaneously worked with SUNY officials, local and state politicians, and community leaders such as Johnson family members (of Endicott-Johnson) and Thomas J. Watson (of IBM) to relocate the campus to its current location in Vestal. Eventually, Bartle realized that the small, liberal arts college he had envisioned needed to expand into a university that offered graduate-level programs and degrees. While this did not officially take place until after Bartle retired in 1964, he had laid the groundwork for the transformation and ensured it would be successful.

Bartle became President of Harpur College in 1954, although he led the institution as “dean” and then “provost” prior to that. When he retired in 1964, Harpur College was transitioning into one of the four university centers within the SUNY system. Bartle had truly built the school from the ground up, having been in charge from 1946-1964. Upon retirement, he worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development until 1966. He revived his natural gas exploration ventures and consulting, travelled around the globe—even visiting some of his Chinese students from Swarthmore during a trip to Taiwan. He attended several International Geological Congresses (1956-1968), participated in Comparative Education Society trips (1964-1966), and took a number of personal trips (1964-1973). His wife, Wanda Bartle, accompanied him on many of these trips. Glenn G. Bartle died on September 14, 1977.