Photo by Herb Weitman

These students in the School of Business in the 1960s are working with card-punch machines. The school first offered bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration in 1925, but the school really came into its own in the 1980s. School leaders decided that having a nationally known school of business was to be a priority in the 1980s, and the hiring of Robert L. Virgil, Ph.D., first as acting dean in 1977, then dean in 1979, paved the way. Virgil served as dean until 1993, and during his tenure, school revenues increased nearly seven-fold. It didn't get its first endowed professorship until 1981, but by 1994, the Olin School of Business had 12. Virgil is now a University trustee and chairs the Sesquicentennial Commission.

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Washington University is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2003-04.

Special programs and announcements will be made throughout the yearlong observance.