When Christopher D. Hite '89 '20P '24P stepped on campus for the first time in high school, it wasn’t because Lehigh was at the top of his list of colleges he was considering. He was on his way back to Pittsburgh after visiting his brother, who had played football for Columbia University. It was on that trip back that he decided to visit a high school friend that played for Lehigh.
But something happened to him on South Mountain — something that happens to many visitors: He fell in love with Lehigh University.
The students, the players, and the campus made a big impression. Enough so that Hite called home and told his father that he wanted to go to Lehigh.
That phone call set off a chain reaction still felt today. Two of his three daughters attended Lehigh — Madison Hite ’20 and Allie Hite ’24. He sits on the Board of Trustees. He recruits top Lehigh talent to major firms. He mentors today’s student athletes.
And the Hite family just created two endowed scholarships to support Lehigh and its students. The first scholarship provides financial aid for student athletes, and the second supports the ongoing success of the Brown and White college newspaper.
Hites on Campus
As a linebacker for the Mountain Hawks, Hite made his mark on the football field. The day a starter went down, Hite entered the game, recorded three sacks, and earned player-of-the-game honors.
To this day, he still holds the team’s top rankings for tackles for a loss in a season (#1) and most sacks in a single game (#2). He sacked some famous people too, including former NFL head coach Jason Garrett (Princeton), Super Bowl-winning quarterback Rich Gannon (Delaware), and Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan (Brown). He even took home MVP honors at the final football game played at Taylor Stadium, when Lehigh defeated Lafayette.
Madison and Allie also learned to tackle. For them, it was stories and deadlines.
Their extracurricular focus on campus became the college paper. They crafted emails; interviewed faculty, staff, and students; investigated stories; worked on camera; had active bylines; served as editors; and met tight deadlines.
For Allie, an opinion piece she wrote about her family holds the deepest meaning, while Madison interviewed CJ McCollum ’13 as his jersey was raised to the rafters at Stabler Arena when Lehigh retired his number.
Beyond the journalistic work, Madison and Allie built a strong relationship with Matt Veto, teaching associate and faculty advisor to The Brown and White.
“Matt gave me the skills to be successful in life, in this field, and across my profession,” says Madison.
After Madison graduated, she took her journalistic skills to NBC Sports, where she later became a producer for the Golf Channel and also covered events such as the Olympics and Super Bowl. Today, she is a freelance producer for the Netflix immersive documentary series Full Swing, which follows professional golfers on and off the course.
Allie now jumps into Zoom conferences with students in Veto’s classes to repay a fraction of the guidance and support he showed her. Her early career has taken her to Bank of America as a mergers-and-acquisitions investment banking analyst. That work still draws on the skills she developed in college journalism, from writing clear, concise emails to building relationships with people.
Making an Impact
Madison and Allie’s mother, Stephanie L. Hite '20P '24P, grew up in West Virginia and witnessed how smart and deserving classmates were unable to attend college.
“They didn’t get the chance to explore their interests and develop their talents because college wasn’t financially viable,” she says.
Chris saw the same growing up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As kids from the forgotten Rust Belt, they know how lucky they are and the role financial support played in their experiences.
That’s why they wanted to leverage their passion for Lehigh by supporting students in need.
“All students deserve to find professors like Matt Veto, who cared so much for my children’s education and development,” says Stephanie.
The Hite Family Scholarship is designed to support student-athletes from Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This year, two football players from Hite’s rival high schools received it.
The family returned to campus to meet those students and celebrate the impact of scholarships at the annual Scholarship Celebration.
Emily Hite, the middle daughter, understands the power of Lehigh.
“Although I didn’t attend the university, Lehigh has always felt like home and will always be part of who I am,” she says. “Some of my earliest and fondest memories are tied to Lehigh — my first sandwich at the Goose, proudly wearing my ‘Lehigh beat Duke’ T-shirt to elementary school, visiting campus countless times with my older sister, and crashing my dad’s annual ATO parties,” she says.
She, like all the members of the Hite family, knows other talented and deserving students should get to form similar memories and build similar bonds with teammates, professors, and classmates.
Mentorship also matters.
The relationship Madison and Allie formed with Veto is one they want to ensure continues for generations. During their visit back to campus, Veto introduced them to Ellie Sileo ’28, the inaugural recipient of the Hite Family Undergraduate Reporting Award, a component of the Hite Family Brown and White scholarship.
“Cultivating young talent like Ellie is important,” says Allie.
“We want her and other new reporters to know that their work matters,” says Madison. “What she is doing on campus is seen by those of us, like me, who still click on and read The Brown and White stories in my Instagram feed.”
That engagement shouldn’t surprise. The Hites continue to weave Lehigh into their lives, most recently by celebrating Madison’s wedding to Jack O’Brien ’20 at Packer Memorial Chapel.
“This place has had a tremendous impact on me and my family, my career, my friends, my husband. … I owe it all to Lehigh,” says Madison.
