Biola University history

By 1909, over 540 extension courses were sponsored by the Bible Institute.

In 1912, the school had grown sufficiently in its outreach and constituency to call R.A. Torrey, a leader in the field of Christian education, as its dean.

The cornerstone of the original Bible Institute building was laid on May 1913.

In 1915 Torrey announced plans to organize an independent church that would meet in Biola's auditorium called the Church of the Open Door.

In 1917, the institute published a four-volume version of The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth, a series of essays affirming conservative Protestant beliefs, edited by Torrey and others, with funds donated by Lyman Stewart and his brother Milton.

Lyman Stewart died on September 28, 1923, and ten months later, Reuben Torrey resigned as dean.

The institute appointed Joseph Irvine as president, and on April 3, 1925, appointed John Murdoch MacInnis as the school's second dean.

MacInnis served as dean until his forced resignation on December 31, 1928.

In 1932, Louis T. Talbot, pastor of the Church of the Open Door, assumed the presidency and helped raise much-needed funds.

The Institute was renamed Biola College, in 1949.

Under Doctor Samuel H. Sutherland, who became president in 1952, the college continued to grow in size, programs and reputation.

The demands imposed by the growing student body and the enlarged curriculum prompted the purchase of a 75-acre site in La Mirada in 1959, the same year it received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The college acquired the graduate programs of Rosemead Graduate School of Professional Psychology in 1977, and relocated it to the La Mirada campus.

Biola College became Biola University on July 1, 1981, composed of the School of Arts and Sciences, Rosemead School of Psychology and Talbot School of Theology.