150 Years of Park University Historical Highlights

On May 12, 2025, Park University’s flagship Parkville (Mo.) Campus and campuses across the country celebrated 150 years of fides et labor (Latin for faith and work, the University’s motto) as part of the University’s Founders Day commemoration. For a century and a half, Park University has stood as a beacon of academic excellence, grounded in the enduring values of accountability, civility and respect, excellence, global citizenship, inclusivity and integrity. Founded by George S. Park (the University’s namesake), John A. McAfee and Rev. Elisha B. Sherwood, Park College for Training Christian Workers began classes on May 12, 1875, with 17 students, including one student who served in the Civil War. The following is a list of 150 years of significant Park University historical events.

          •  1875 — Park College for Training Christian Workers (shortened to Park College in 1879, became Park University in 2000) was founded by George S. Park (right), John A. McAfee and Rev. Elisha B. Sherwood; the “Original 17” begin classes on May 12.
          •  1879 — Four students, three women and one man, become the first Park graduates on July 1.
          •  1880 — Park’s first foreign student, from Japan, begins classes.
          •  1886 — Ground is broken for Mackay Hall; due to various stoppages, including the death of Duncan Mackay in 1889 (the building’s namesake) and lack of funding, the building was not completed until 1893.
          •  1890 — George S. Park and John A. McAfee die one week apart; both are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery in Parkville, Mo.
          •  1912 — Albert and Sylvia (Harbaugh) Caldwell, both class of 1909, along with their son, 10-month-old Alden, survive the sinking of the Titanic, one of the few families to survive intact.
          •  1918 — Park begins its affiliation with the U.S. military by accepting students who were inducted into the War Department’s Student Army Training Corps.
          •  1919 — George S. Robb (right), Class of 1912, awarded Medal of Honor. Robb was a White officer who led the 369th Infantry’s “Harlem Hellfighters,” an all-Black National Guard unit from New York.
          •  1925 — Park’s student body selects “Pirates” as the school’s mascot, winning over “Eagles” and “Panthers.”
          •  1937 — The original Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel is destroyed in a fire on Christmas night and rebuilt within a year.
          •  1942 — Park College President Dr. William Lindsay Young accepts nine Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) students during World War II when Japanese Americans were being held in internment camps. The arrival of the Nisei students sparks tension within the community, known as the “Battle of Parkville.”
          •  1943-45 — More than 800 cadets from the U.S. Navy’s V-12 program come to Park.
          •  1951 — Lewis Millett (left), Class of 1963, awarded the Medal of Honor for action during the Korean War.
          •  1952 — Marvin Brooks (right) is the first Black student to graduate from Park.
          •  1957 — The original Alumni Hall burns due to arson and a new Alumni Hall is built within a year.
          •  1961 — Park joins the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
          •  1962 — Park begins a degree completion program for military students.
          •  1972 — Park’s first “campus center” — the School for Community Education — is launched in Kansas City, Mo., offering evening and weekend classes for adults
          •  1973 — Park opens its first military campuses and establishes its Military Resident Center System.
          •  1974 — The first class from a Military Resident Center graduate from the campus at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
          •  1975 — Park establishes ties with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS; now known as the Community of Christ).
          •  1979 — Park formally transitions affiliation with the Presbyterian church to the RLDS church.
          •  1982 — The Graduate School of Public Affairs is inaugurated (renamed the Hauptmann School of Public Affairs in 2001 in honor of Dr. Jerzy Hauptmann, right)
          •  1989 — The Mabee Learning Center/Academic Underground is dedicated.
          •  1996 — Park begins online education programs
          •  2000 — Park College becomes Park University on January 1
          •  2001 — Dr. Beverley Byers-Pevitts (right), is named Park’s first female president (and 14th overall); Breckon Sports Center, named after former President Dr. Donald Breckon, is dedicated.
          •  2003 — The International Center for Music is launched.
          •  2008 — Students move in to Copley Quad, the first new residence hall built on the Parkville Campus in 40 years.
          •  2009 — Park establishes the Park Warrior Center (now the Park Global Warrior Center); Behzod Abduraimov, an 18-year-old student in the International Center for Music, wins the London International Piano Competition; plant fossils dating some 306 million years old — Parkvillia northcutti — fossil leaves from an extinct family of plants known as Lyginopteridaceae, are found on the Parkville Campus
          •  2013 — Park University offers Emergency Military Scholarships for military members caught in federal government sequester; national media coverage ensues.
          •  2014 — The men’s and women’s volleyball teams win NAIA national titles in April and December, respectively. The women’s team (right) went undefeated with a 40-0 record. Park University receives $168,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation for Dr. Patty Ryberg, the first NSF grant to a Park faculty member since 1993.
          •  2017 — Kenny Broberg, a graduate student in the International Center for Music, wins the silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; the Parkville Campus men’s volleyball program wins its fifth NAIA national title; Thompson Commons undergoes $3 million remodel; record number of first-time freshmen begin classes. Parkville Campus experiences a nearly 75-second total solar eclipse and receives live national media coverage via NPR.
          •  2018 — Park University opens a new residential campus in Gilbert, Ariz.; the Parkville Campus women’s volleyball program wins its second NAIA national title; the University signed a partnership agreement with the Kansas City Chiefs to become the NFL team’s first-ever Official Higher Education Partner.
          •  2019 — Park launches the first collegiate varsity esports program in the Kansas City area; the University and its George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War spearheads the Valor Medals Review, a systematic analysis of minorities who may have been denied the Medal of Honor due to race. The efforts earn national media coverage, including a story on “CBS Evening News.” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Sen. Roy Blunt visit Parkville Campus (Parson is first Missouri governor to visit the campus in 39 years). Historic Park House on the Parkville Campus is moved to make way for the construction of the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center and School of Business. Broberg wins third prize at International Tchaikovsky Competition. Vlatko Andonovski, 2008 graduate, is selected as the head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
          •  2020 — The COVID-19 pandemic forces classes to be fully online for the second half of the spring semester and hybrid in the fall semester; Park holds its first-ever virtual commencement ceremony in December with Anthony Melchiorri, a 1990 Park graduate and host/co-creator of Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible” series, is the keynote speaker. Steve Youngblood, associate professor of communication arts and director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism, is awarded the 2020 Luxembourg Peace Prize for Outstanding Peace Journalism.
        •  2021 — Parkville Campus women’s volleyball player Nada Meawad (right) is an unprecedented five-time first team All-American; Broberg wins the American Pianists Awards; the Plaster Center opens in August.
          •  2022 — Ilya Shmukler, graduate student in the International Center for Music, advanced to the finals (top six) of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; the Valor Medals Review Project receives national media coverage following stories that are published in the Des Moines Register.
        •  2023 — Youngblood is selected as a 2023-24 Fulbright Scholar, the third time to receive the award (2001 and 2007). The release of the blockbuster biographical film “Oppenheimer” over the summer put Park University and its Frances Fishburn Archives and Special Collections in the spotlight in Kansas City region news outlets in late July and early August. Three Park University alumni (above) were connected to the Manhattan Project — a research and development program in World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons — a main feature in “Oppenheimer.” Joseph McKibben, ’33, Ph.D., Hugh Richards, ’39, Ph.D., and John Cory, ’42, participated in the Manhattan Project, two of whom played significant roles.
          •  2024 — Shmuker wins the Concours Geza Anda Piano Competition in Switzerland.
          •  2025 — The Park University Parkville (Mo.) Campus women’s beach volleyball squad made team history at the end of the month by advancing to the NAIA Women’s Beach Volleyball National Invitational Tournament semifinals for the first time. The previous three seasons, Park ended the year in the national quarterfinals; in just its first of existence, the Park University Parkville (Mo.) Campus competitive cheer program (above) brought home the third place trophy from the National Cheerleaders Association College Nationals in the intermediate small coed NAIA division; Michael Davidman, 2023 graduate (International Center for Music graduate artist diploma), won the American Piano Awards in Indianapolis.

Historical images courtesy of Park University’s Frances Fishburn Archives and Special Collections.