Pettit became president of the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1972. During his 14-year tenure as president, Pettit was credited with turning Georgia Tech into a top tier research institution. Pettit has also received credit for shifting Georgia Tech back to its roots with regards to providing assistance with economic development within the state of Georgia. In the decades known for the Vietnam War and the launch of Sputnik, research at Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute had become so tied with NASA and the Department of Defense that local industrial development had been largely forgotten. In 1975, the Georgia General Assembly designated the Engineering Experiment Station (now the Georgia Tech Research Institute) as the "Georgia Productivity Center". Georgia was the first state to designate such a center to encourage business productivity.