Growing out of the Veteran’s Vocational School in downtown Troy, New York, the college was founded in 1953 as the Hudson Valley Technical Institute. Initially, the role of the college was to provide practical hands-on vocational training for veterans returning from World War II. Dwight Marvin, editor of the Troy Record, was one of several community leaders who pressed to create a broader mission for the college, which in 1959 would be officially known as Hudson Valley Community College. Marvin served as the first chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees. Hudson Valley Community College, a SUNY associated two-year college, is located in Troy in Rensselaer County, New York. Although about eighty percent of the students are from the local area, the remainder are from other parts of New York, other states and from some 30 countries around the world.