Gordie Beittenmiller’s lifelong connection to Gettysburg inspires his support for Gettysburg College as a trustee, donor, entrepreneur, and filmmaker committed to strengthening the institution’s future.
Gordie Beittenmiller’s connection to Gettysburg College did not begin with an acceptance letter, a residence hall, or a diploma. It began with a story.
Growing up east of Gettysburg near York, Pennsylvania, Beittenmiller developed an early interest in the battlefield through a high school project suggested by his American history teacher. A few years later, while attending Penn State University Park, he returned to Gettysburg as a seasonal National Park Service ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park.
“I loved that job,” Beittenmiller said. “I would jump out of bed in the morning, ready to go. You’re telling an epic story in a beautiful setting with people from all over every day.”
Although his professional life eventually took him to Texas, where he built a career as an entrepreneur, investor, and CEO in the architecture, engineering, and construction sector, Gettysburg remained close to his heart. Beittenmiller, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Forthright Environmental, describes Gettysburg as his adopted hometown—a place that shaped his imagination, values, and sense of civic responsibility.
That affection eventually brought him closer to Gettysburg College. Growing up locally, he knew the College from a distance, but over time came to see it as one of the region’s defining institutions of higher education: a center of culture, learning, employment, and community life. His involvement deepened through Gettysburg College President Emerita Janet Morgan Riggs ’77, who encouraged him to consider what he could bring as a non-alumnus and business leader outside the traditional Gettysburg alumni network.
“As a believer in the power of a liberal arts and sciences education, I saw the College as a leading cultural institution and employer in my home region,” Beittenmiller said. “It was easy for me to say yes.”
“Gettysburg is not an institution frozen in time. It is engaging with the challenges of its sector of higher ed head-on.”
– Gordie Beittenmiller
Beittenmiller joined the Board of Trustees in 2019, bringing a deep appreciation for Gettysburg’s sense of place and decades of experience leading organizations. Today, as chair of the Board’s Finance Committee, he works closely with President Bob Iuliano, Chief Financial Officer Matt Price, and fellow trustees to help guide the College through significant change across higher education.
For Beittenmiller, that stewardship is both practical and aspirational.
“The Trustees are stewards and guides for engagement of the College with society, for the soul of the College community,” he said.
He is clear-eyed about the pressures facing residential liberal arts colleges. Yet he also sees possibility for Gettysburg because of its emphasis on interpersonal engagement, the Guided Pathways, experiential learning, and a broad education that prepares students for lives of purpose and consequence.
In a world reshaped by artificial intelligence, digital overload, and social fragmentation, Beittenmiller believes the skills developed through a liberal arts and sciences education are more important than ever. Critical thinking, clear communication, adaptability, and the ability to work meaningfully with others are precisely the capacities students will need to navigate uncertainty and contribute to society.
“Gettysburg is not an institution frozen in time,” Beittenmiller said. “It is engaging with the challenges of its sector of higher ed head-on.”
That belief is central to his recent support for Gettysburg’s entrepreneurship program, for which he has committed $1 million as part of a total commitment of $1.25 that Beittenmiller has made to the College. To Beittenmiller, entrepreneurship is not limited to starting companies. It is a way of thinking and acting in the world—a process of identifying problems, taking calculated risks, learning from failure, and creating something of value.
“Entrepreneurship is solving real-world problems usually with a degree of risk and often involves failure both small and large,” he noted. “Our systems of secondary and higher education generally emphasize knowledge, risk-aversion, and achievement that are different than the skills and risk-taking inherent in entrepreneurship, yet entrepreneurship is central to our progress as a society.”
His own career has reflected that mindset. Beittenmiller has helped build, grow, and lead companies across the architecture, engineering, construction, environmental remediation, and specialty contracting fields. By supporting entrepreneurship at Gettysburg, Beittenmiller hopes students will test ideas, engage real-world challenges, and develop the confidence to move forward when the path is uncertain.
That same spirit of creativity can be seen in another part of Beittenmiller’s life: filmmaking. Beittenmiller and Jake Boritt—son of late Gettysburg History Prof. Emeritus Gabor Boritt—have continued a decade-long partnership through a new documentary exploring Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel “The Killer Angels” and the Shaara family legacy, which recently premiered at The Majestic Theater and will make its way to PBS in November. For Beittenmiller, the project connects back to the same impulse that animated his years as a park ranger: telling meaningful stories rooted in place, history, and human experience.
Whether through philanthropy, trusteeship, entrepreneurship, or documentary storytelling, Beittenmiller’s commitment to Gettysburg is grounded in gratitude and belief. He may not be a Gettysburg College alumnus, but he sees the College as essential to a community he loves and to a future he believes can be stronger.
“I am substantially optimistic,” he said. “From the standpoint of the faculty, the Board, President Iuliano, and the leadership all pulling in the same direction and doing the right kinds of things, I think our prospects are as good, if not better, than most other institutions like us.”
For Beittenmiller, supporting Gettysburg College is about helping an institution rooted in history prepare students to meet the future—with courage, creativity, and the capacity to solve problems that matter.
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By Corey Jewart
Photos provided by Gordie Beittenmiller
Posted: 07/23/26