BLUEFIELD, VA (LOOTPRESS) – Bluefield College is now Bluefield University!
The historic news was shared during the President’s Convocation and the ceremonial beginning of the institution’s centennial celebration that took place this morning. President Dr. David Olive shared, “Although there is a change in name, the institution will remain a Christ-centered learning community developing servant leaders to transform the world.”
Although it is not certain where the idea came from to form a junior college in southwestern Virginia, it is certain that a group of Bluefield residents who traveled to Bristol, Virginia, to appear before a committee of the Baptist General Association of Virginia played a key role in the creation of Bluefield College. With great interest and enthusiasm and with an offer of land and money, these men persuaded the BGAV to build its new college in Bluefield. Without them, where would BC be today?
In 1919, the Baptist General Association of Virginia appointed a committee to study the need for a junior college in southwestern Virginia. The committee met in Bristol in August of that year, at which time a large group of citizens from Bluefield and vicinity came before the committee and generously offered $75,000 and 65 acres of land if the Association would locate the proposed college in Bluefield. At the meeting of the Baptist General Association in November of 1919, the committee recommended the Bluefield offer be accepted.
In July of 1920, Dr. R.A. Lansdell became the first president of Bluefield College. During his administration, he assembled the first faculty, erected the first buildings and actively solicited funds for the college. In September of 1922, under Dr. Lansdell’s leadership, Bluefield College opened its doors to students seeking Christian higher education in southwestern Virginia.