California Lutheran University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

California Lutheran University (also CLU or Cal Lutheran) is a private, liberal arts university located in Thousand Oaks, a small southern Californian city. It was founded in 1959 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian.^[2] Their mission is "to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice.

History

In 1954, a committee was first formed jointly by the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America (These two organizations much later joined with another organization to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.) to plan a Lutheran college in California. Five churches served on the committee, dubbed the California Lutheran Education Foundation,^[4] which still owns the university.^[5] Richard Pederson, son of Scandinavian immigrants, donated 130 acres of farmland for the university in 1957.^[6] In 1959, the college was officially incorporated, with Orville Dahl, Ed. D. instituted as the first president. The college opened to its first incoming class in September 1961, and was accredited by the Western Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in March 1962. Dahl served as president until 1962, bringing the university's first football coach, Robert Shoup, to the campus in his final year.