Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and General Jonathan M. Wainwright
in a parade honoring the General on Broadway, Manhattan,

September 13, 1945.  

What’s in a name?

In October 1970, the NYC Board of Higher Education named Community College Number Nine after one of the city’s most beloved mayors, and so, Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College made its debut on the stage of higher education.

Mayor La Guardia - aka The Little Flower - was known for a larger than life, take charge personality and a heightened sense of fairness that made him the champion of immigrants and the working class. He rejuvenated the city through such progressive initiatives as low-cost public housing and a revamped transit system; by abolishing cronyism and corruption at City Hall and creating merit-based Civil Service employment opportunities for all, he transformed the perception of modern urban living while giving the voices of all the city’s diverse inhabitants a chance to be heard. Small wonder The Little Flower remains an icon of social justice in America to this day.

Today, LaGuardia Community College carries forward the Mayor’s legacy of courageous idealism by challenging expectations and daring to do more through innovative academic programs and workforce initiatives that enable students to write their own futures and that strengthen our community and our country.

Read more on Honoring the Namesake of Fiorello H. La Guardia Community College by Joanne Reitano, PhD, Professor of History, LaGuardia Community College, August 2010.