University of The Pacific (United States) - History

History

Pacific was founded on July 10, 1851, in Santa Clara as California Wesleyan College. In 1858, the college opened the first medical school on the West Coast. The medical school later became part of Stanford and is now California Pacific Medical Center.

In 1871, the campus was moved to San Jose and the college opened its doors to women, becoming the first independent co-educational campus in California. In 1878, the Conservatory of Music was established at Pacific, making it the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River. In 1896, Napa College merged with the college. In 1911, the name was changed to College of the Pacific (COP or Pacific).

In 1923, the campus relocated from the Bay Area to the city of Stockton becoming the first institution of higher education in the Central Valley; it became the University of the Pacific in 1961.

In 1962, Pacific merged with the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons (established in 1896 in San Francisco), and then in 1966, with the McGeorge School of Law (established in 1924 in Sacramento). In the late 1960s, the university separated from the United Methodist Church, when “federal law about public funding of church-related institutions became an issue.”

In May 2007, the university announced an estate gift of $100 million from Robert C. and Jeannette Powell. The gift was unusual in its size for an institution like Pacific that is not primarily research-focused. Only 29 universities throughout the world received a larger gift in the prior 40 years.