For 1982, instead of a “man of the year,” Time magazine named a “machine of the year” — the computer. Technology also was on the rise in Centre County, with companies like HRB-Singer advancing the private sector based on research transferred from Penn State. In 1983, the Centre County Industrial Development Corporation (CCIDC) converted the vacant Matternville Elementary School into a business incubator and technology-development center. One of the facility’s biggest success stories was Restek Corp., launched in 1985 and still a major employer today and worldwide leader in the chromatography field.
Despite many business and technology success stories, though, Centre County didn’t escape the global recession of the early 1980s. Local unemployment rates hit 9 percent, inflation was approaching 14 percent, and families struggled to buy homes when mortgage interest was as high as 18 percent.
Beaver Stadium capacity increased to 83,770 in 1980, just in time for Penn State to take home national football titles in 1982 and 1986 — still the Nittany Lions’ only claimed national titles. Community recreation got a boost in 1982, when the private Bald Knob Ski Club in Boalsburg reorganized as the public Tussey Mountain Ski Area, where the young sport of snowboarding soon became popular.
Also in 1982, as the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution drew to a close — without passage — Penn State established its University Commission on Women, charged with improving the environment for women faculty, staff, and students. In health care, Geisinger Health System opened its first Centre County location in 1981, in Philipsburg. Health South Nittany Valley Rehabilitation Center (now Encompass Health) and The Meadows Psychiatric Center both began treating patients in 1984, while Centre Community Hospital (now Mount Nittany Health) union employees went on strike for 25 days in 1982.
Options for senior living also expanded with the construction of Brookline Village (now Juniper Village at Brookline) in 1985 and Foxdale Village in 1987. On campus, Penn State created the College of Health and Human Development in 1987 by merging the College of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation with the College of Human Development.
ClearWater Conservancy began protecting local lands and waters in 1980, and the next year the Lion’s Paw Alumni Association formed the Mount Nittany Conservancy to protect the landmark from development. The State College Friends School started n 1980 with 12 students. In 1981, the Centre Foundation began building its collection of endowed funds to benefit the community. The CCIDC began construction of Penn Eagle Industrial Park in the early ’80s. The State College bypass (Mount Nittany Expressway) finally was completed in 1985 after 15-plus years of controversy that had stalled construction. Northland Center opened in 1989 on North Atherton Street, which was soon to become a booming retail area.
The State College Area School District banned corporal punishment in 1988 and adopted a state-mandated curriculum about AIDS for eighth-, ninth-, and eleventh-graders. That same year, fall classes began two weeks late due to a strike by teachers seeking higher pay. The next year, a major addition at the high school opened, featuring a large gym and a six-lane swimming pool.
