Friends Howard McClintic and Charles Marshall, who both graduated from Lehigh in 1888 with degrees in civil engineering, are the names behind the freshman dormitory built in 1957. And as co-founders of the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company, their accomplishments are memorialized in works of more monumental proportions—the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the locks of the Panama Canal and the Empire State Building.

McClintic excelled in athletics, and at Lehigh, he was captain of the baseball team and participated in the Lawn Tennis Club and the track team. He was also vice president of his class. Marshall joined McClintic to help establish the Lehigh Chapter of the Sigma Nu fraternity.

They co-founded their steel manufacturing firm two years after graduation. In 1931, the company was acquired by Bethlehem Steel for $32 million.