Bucks County Community College was founded in 1964 in response to a need for a public two-year collegiate institution to serve graduates of the County's high schools and other citizens of Bucks County who would benefit from an experience in higher education.

The initial proposal for a Community College was developed and presented to the public in 1963 by the then Office of Bucks County Superintendent of Schools. Subsequently, the Bucks County School Directors Association, urged the Bucks County Board of Commissioners in 1964 to become the sponsor for the proposed school under the provisions of Act 848 (the Community College Act).

The Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to sponsor the college in a legal resolution adopted June 22, 1964. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education approved the proposal in September and a 15-member Bucks County Community College Board of Trusties was appointed October 5,1964, by the County Commissioners.

The site for the College was determined three months later, when Bucks County acquired, from Temple University, 200 acres of the former Tyler Estate in Newtown Township. The Estate had been bequeathed to the University two years earlier by Mrs. Stella Elkins Tyler, a sculptress and patron of the arts who was a trustee of Temple University for 20 years.

Most graduates of the College's transfer programs have attended Pennsylvania's four-year colleges or other State-related institutions. Other graduates of the College have gone on to pursue their studies at more than 300 other four-year institutions in forty-five states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden.