READING, Pa. – Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak took the stage as guest speaker for Reading Area Community College’s 50th anniversary gala Wednesday night at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on Penn Street.

Anthony DeMarco, RACC’s vice president of college advancement, explained in September that the college had an endowment for a keynote speaker, with the stipulation that it not be a politician or an entertainer.

Instead, the endowment asked for someone with a technology background who actually attended a community college.

Wozniak was enrolled in De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California, before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a degree in electrical engineering/computer science.

As the co-founder of Apple Computer and as a philanthropist for more than 30 years, Wozniak helped shaped today’s computer industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products.

In 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. with Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer.

RACC was founded on Oct. 1, 1971, with classes being held in several buildings in Reading until 1978, when it located to the former Holiday Inn at South Second and Penn streets, where it remains today.

The event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the community college was sold out.