Check back as we add more photos and make our way through the decades at Durham Tech. View more images and video in 60 for 60 News.

Pull the slider below to the right or left to see how Durham Tech has grown from the 1970s to 2021.

  • A newly built Durham Industrial Education Center before Lawson Street was paved. It became Durham Technical Institute in 1965.
  • Harold K. Collins, first president (1961-1975)
  • Members of the first class of 34 students in 1961 enrolled in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Dental Technology, Distribution and Marketing Technology, and Automotive Engineering Technology
  • 1966 Practical Nursing
  • 1969 Mechanical Engineering Technology
  • Police Science AAS was added in 1969
  • 1969 Dental Laboratory Technology
  • 1969 Electronics Engineering Technology
  • 1969 Secretarial Science
  • two students draw equations on blackboard as the instructor watches
    1969 Mathematics class
  • three students gather around a lab as the instructor points at a dangling chains suspended from a rod
    1969 physics lab
  • 1960s photo of students and instructor looking at insides of outdated electronics equipment with dials
    Electronics Engineering Technology in the 1960s





  • 1969 Industrial and Engineering Technologies Building (later renamed for George W. Newton) was opened
  • 1973 opticianry lab with several students practicing with equipment and laughing and talking
    Opticianry was added to the curriculum in 1971
  • 1973 inhalation therapy student in lab practicing with "patient" using an old-fashioned looking respiration device
    Inhalation Therapy, a new and fast growing specialty, was added in 1971
  • a basketball player takes a shot during a game
    In 1971, the Gamecocks basketball team was formed.
  • basketball players jump for the rebound under the hoop
    They competed in the Piedmont Athletic
    Conference of Technical Institutes (PACTI)
  • eight DTI cheerleaders in uniforms pose in formation
    The cheerleaders encouraged team spirit
  • 1971 student uses electric typewriter to create computer forms
    1971 Data Processing replaces Secretarial Science
  • 1983 student uses a boxy personal computer to enter data
    1983 Computer Programming replaces Data Processing
  • 1997 the program splits into Information Systems and Network Administration & Support
  • Headshot of second president John Crumpton
    John Crumpton, second president (1975-1980) came to Durham Tech from IBM.
  • headshot of Dr. Phail Wynn Jr.
    Phail Wynn, Jr., third president (1980-2007), was
    the youngest and the first black community college president in North Carolina.
  • headshot of Dr. William Ingram, fourth president
    William G. Ingram (2008-2019), fourth president, served at Durham Tech since 1983.
  • 1974 Bus ad Durham Technical Institute Paycheck Education
    1974 Bus ad
  • 2021 bus ad College is now affordable. It's our Promise
    2021 Bus ad