Point Loma Nazarene University - History

History

The college was founded by several female laypersons in the Church of the Nazarene with the assistance of Phineas F. Bresee, co-founder of the Nazarene Church in Los Angeles. The "initiators," in the words of historian Timothy L. Smith, convinced "a reluctant Bresee to support the venture."

The institution envisioned was "a simple Bible college" to train ministerial and lay leadership for the newly established Nazarene denomination; however, a Bible college did not fit Bresee's notion of a real Christian school, and he "promised little or no assistance." The women went ahead with their plan, with money raised from their husbands, and Pacific Bible College opened in 1902 under Principal Mary Hill. In 1906, Bresee's interest in the college was piqued with a large donation from Jackson Deets. Bresee now saw the possibility for a real liberal arts college in the newly renamed Deets Pacific Bible College. Bresee and Deets were soon planning Nazarene University together: academy, liberal arts college, and bible school. It became one of the first three "official" educational institutions affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene in 1908, and was named Deets Pacific Bible College in 1909. In 1910, it was renamed Nazarene University and, against the wishes of Jackson Deets and the advice of Nazarene General Superintendent John W. Goodwin, the college moved to the Hugus Ranch property in Pasadena, California. It was renamed again to Pasadena University following a theological dispute and near bankruptcy in 1917.

In 1924, the name was changed again, this time to Pasadena College. The school received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in 1949. The college preparatory program was ended in the 1950s. In 1973, the college was relocated to the former California Western University campus on Point Loma in San Diego, after a rejected plan to move the school to Santa Ana, where it existed for ten years as "Point Loma College: An Institution of the Church of the Nazarene" until the name was changed to Point Loma Nazarene College (PLNC) in 1983. In 1998, the name was changed again, to Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU).