Some of the most extraordinary innovations of the past 100 years have their origins at Illinois Tech.
Illinois Tech has always been a place that has celebrated—and built upon—the promise and power of collective difference. We are a unique community of nonlinear thinkers and outside-the-box doers, laser-focused on delivering a very different kind of innovation that is inclusive, representative, and impactful. And that purpose has led to groundbreaking, era-defining technology and design.
The institution has its roots in the “Million Dollar Sermon,” delivered by Frank Wakeley Gunsaulus from his Chicago pulpit circa 1890. At a time when advanced education was reserved for an elite few, Illinois Tech was born different. It was created to provide higher education to students of all backgrounds so that they could prepare for meaningful roles in a changing society—a mission we live up to today, ranked nationally (and first in Illinois) for lifting students from families in the bottom 20 percent of income to the top 20 percent.
There are few better champions of this journey than Michael P. Galvin (LAW ’78) and the Galvin family. The Galvins’ commitment to Illinois Tech and its students goes as far back as the early 1930s. In 1928 Mike’s grandfather Paul V. Galvin founded the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation that later became Motorola, and their extensive philanthropic work with Illinois Tech began thereafter.
Meet the Galvin family and explore the Galvin family’s historic innovations and culture of philanthropy.
In addition to funding many of our scholarships, buildings, and other initiatives over the years, the Galvins also turned to the student body at Illinois Tech as a source of some of its pioneering Motorola engineers and technologists, including Marty Cooper (EE ’50, M.S. ’57), who led the Motorola team to first commercialize the global mobile telephone. Cooper was further backed by John F. Mitchell (EE ’50), who rose to become president and COO of Motorola, among other alumni. Simply put, the family, the company, and the university were cut from the same cloth—deeply connected to the same purpose and united in their belief in connection, community, and the power of collective difference to make a difference.
With the ingenuity of numerous Illinois Tech alumni, Motorola created not just new products, but whole new industries with the Galvin family leading the team. Motorola introduced the first car radio in the 1930s. They designed the world’s first portable FM two-way radio. Motorola was a first mover in color TV and other consumer electronic products. Motorola created the microprocessor that powered the first Apple computers. It launched the world’s first mobile phone. It was a leading innovator in embedded automotive electronics and governmental systems. And when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon and announced, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” he transmitted that message to people around the world on Motorola equipment.
Motorola transformed our lives by revolutionizing how people connect and communicate. Its inventions freed us from the tethers of place, the restraints of wires, and the demands of accessibility. Transformative innovation requires visionary leadership. Far ahead of their time, the Galvins served as a force for staying in productive motion.
Mike Galvin (LAW ’78), this tower’s namesake and our chair of the Board of Trustees, is a graduate of Illinois Tech’s Chicago-Kent College of Law. Like his grandfather and father before him, Mike believes deeply in the purpose and power of Illinois Tech. He has a clear-eyed belief in the university’s unique potential and significance across many spheres: in higher education, in technology, in the city of Chicago, and in the world.
Mike’s journey from Illinois Tech has taken him on a path to private practice, public service, and entrepreneurship, from the law firm Winston & Strawn, where he served as corporate finance transactions partner, to our nation’s capital, where he served as assistant secretary of the United States Department of Commerce for Export Administration. Mike also co-founded Harrison Street Real Estate Capital—named after the Chicago Harrison Street address at which Galvin Manufacturing/Motorola commercialized its first successful products—and Galvin Enterprises, Inc., which is Mike’s venture capital investing firm.
As board chair Mike has profoundly influenced Illinois Tech’s commitment to a rigorous, world-class education and career readiness; real-world skill building to solve some of the most immediate unmet needs and challenges of our time; and a robust culture of philanthropy.
Mike has a keen focus on the university’s immense potential to do good in this world—to drive a very different kind of innovation that is as brilliant as it is inclusive and representative, which helps individuals achieve their own potential, stories, and legacy in the work and goals of the university. His life and work aim to inspire others to achieve their full potential and rise to new heights of meaning and impact.
Illinois Tech was built on an ethos of representative innovation and era-defining technology. Our alumni are visionaries and trailblazers. This is not by accident. This is by design. Going back to our origins, to the “Million Dollar Sermon”: At Illinois Tech we were born different.
Our distinctive ethos comes through so often in the innovative people and companies and revolutionary ideas that emerge from our colleges and institutes. We help solve some of the most pressing needs and challenges of our time. That is the power of collective difference to make a difference.