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The visionary quality of the Pace board was especially apparent during the year-long celebration of the Semi centennial of Pace College. Fully aware of the importance of the fiftieth anniversary of a rapidly developing institution, the trustees began preparing for the celebration more than a year in advance.     In addition to an intense effort by a planning committee of faculty and administrators, an attempt was made to heighten public awareness of the anniversary and the institution marking it. Towards that end President Robert S. Pace addressed business and financial leaders at the Downtown Athletic Club in December 1955. In his brief overview of the school's history, he stated: "First, for emphasis, I will say what Pace College is not, and never has been. It is not a business school."   President Pace pointed out that unlike traditional business schools, class work at Pace, from the very beginning in 1906, "was on the university lecture method, with four-month semesters and two semesters a year. "  The depth and breadth of the education provided by Pace had enabled many of its graduates to excel in business, according to President Pace, who noted that several hundred Pace alumni were officers of major corporations.  The success of Pace graduates would be only one theme of the anniversary, however.

     At the start of the Semi centennial year, 1956, President Robert S. Pace and board chairman Samuel Miller formally announced the anniversary theme originated by Dr. Jack Schiff, Chairman of the Marketing Department, "Responsible Participation in an Economy of Free Men."  The elaborate printed brochure containing information about conferences and other events planned for the Semi centennial year, which began with the June 1956 commencement exercises and concluded with those of June 1957, underscored certain aspects of the history of the college, stating, "A healthy American economy has been - and continues to be - a matter of special concern to Pace College, since its objective has been to prepare young men and women to take places of leadership in that economy. Hence the Semi centennial theme ... has significance for Pace College and the community at large."  Elsewhere in the announcement publication, another important point was made, namely that "inherent in the Semi centennial theme is the premise that economic freedom, like political freedom, is not a status but a process. It must be watched and worked at to be earned and kept."

     The Semi centennial theme was underscored at a Founder's Day convocation held on October 6, 1956. That morning 400 leaders from government, business and education gathered in the Council Chambers of the New York City Hall, a stone's throw from Pace, to discuss "Man and Management - the Endless Challenge." With Professor Richard M. Matthews, Chairman of Pace's Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, presiding, the morning symposium consisted of several substantive addresses.   Dr. John V. Walsh, Professor of Social Sciences at Pace, spoke about "The Problem of Continuity and Control in Political Society," while Dr. Edward H. Litchfield, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, discussed "Continuity and Control in the Modern Corporation." Management consultant, author, and professor of management at New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration, Dr. Peter E Drucker selected for his topic, "The Commitment of Management."  The principal theme of the Semi centennial, "Responsible Participation in an Economy of Free Men," was the subject of Senator Margaret Chase Smith's luncheon address.

     Speaking to the more than 600 invited guests seated in various locations throughout the 41 Park Row building, which Pace students dubbed their "skyscraper campus," the Senator analyzed the balance between security and freedom declaring:

     The preservation of individual freedom requires a reasonable minimum of social security, so that the shirkers can compare what is attainable to thrifty workers with what a benevolent government provides for those who take only the advantages, and shirk all the disadvantages of daily earning their way.

     No government can devise a system of security that will completely eliminate the struggle in life. The test-proven way of successfully meeting the struggle of life is self-development. The best thing that our government can give to you and me is not a state-controlled security or special advantage, but rather the opportunity for self-development.

    You and I cannot escape the fact that the ultimate responsibility for freedom is personal. Our freedoms today are not so much in danger because people are consciously trying to take them away from us, as they are in danger, because we forget to use them. Freedom may be an intangible but like most everything else, it can die because of lack of use. Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited.  

    Senator Smith was awarded an honorary degree at the convocation which followed the luncheon. Other honorary degree recipients were Charles F. Noyes, Chairman of the Board of the Charles F. Noyes Company, Inc., Dr. Emanuel Saxe, Dean of City College's School of Public and Business Administration, Drs. Drucker and Litchfield, and Dr. Theodore S. Repplier, President of the Advertising Council.  Dr. Repplier delivered the keynote address at the convocation held at St. Paul's Chapel. The convocation was preceded by a formal procession from the college, through City Hall Park, to St. Paul's. Representatives from 134 colleges and universities throughout the United States donned academic attire for a procession which was as historic as it was colorful. Prior to 1956 the most recent event of this type in lower Manhattan had taken place in 1775!

    Once inside the chapel, the distinguished guests heard Dr. Repplier speak about increasing the social responsibility of business in his keynote address, entitled, "As a Nation Thinketh."  Dr. Repplier observed that ideas, rather than weapons, would decide the outcome of the Cold War. He spoke about a new form of capitalism, "People's Capitalism," with "increasing social justice for all," which he characterized as "the moral answer to the communists...."   According to Dr. Repplier, "It is a variety of capitalism previously unknown, in which the people themselves both power the means of production and share in the rewards."  Describing the American economy in 1956 as "neither laissez-faire capitalism nor the harsh, exploitative capitalism of 19th century colonialism," Dr. Repplier said: "It is something so new that many Americans do not know they have it."

    When all was said and done on October 6, 1956, the aspect of the celebration which may have touched some members of the Pace community more than anything else was the greeting sent by New York Senator Herbert H. Lehman to the editor of a special anniversary issue of The Pace Press. The Senator summed up the aspirations of many at Pace by declaring: "May your next fifty years be as successful as the past fifty have been."

In 1961 Dr. Edward J. Mortola was inaugurated as Pace's third president.  

1962 was a very big year for Pace. Alumnus Wayne Marks donated his Pleasantville estate to Pace for use as a branch of Pace College.  The State Education Department authorized the awarding of A.A. and A.A.S. degrees in Pleasantville and the B.S. in New York. To learn more about the Pleasantville campus, click "Pace Pleasantville."