History

In 1952, the Mobile Baptist Association appointed a committee to study the feasibility of starting a Baptist-affiliated college in Mobile. In 1959, the Alabama Baptist State Convention agreed to build and operate a college if the Mobile community would raise $1.5 million within two years. Only one year later, area churches, businesses, and industries pledged more than $2 million to the effort. Dr. William K. Weaver, Jr. was appointed president of Mobile College on April 1, 1961, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1984. When Governor John Malcolm Patterson signed the College's charter in 1961, Mobile College became the first senior college to be chartered in the state of Alabama in 57 years. The College's first administration and classroom building, now named Weaver Hall in honor of the institution's first president, was completed in 1963. Mobile College gained accreditation in 1968 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The second president, Dr. Michael A. Magnoli, was inaugurated in 1984 and oversaw a period of unprecedented growth. In 1993 under Magnoli, Mobile College would become the University of Mobile. On February 13, 1998, the University of Mobile Board of Trustees unanimously elected Dr. Mark R. Foley as the third president. Under Dr. Foley, the University of Mobile entered the new millennium with the express purpose of preparing students academically, socially, and spiritually to impact the world. New academic majors have been added as the University anticipates and responds to changing needs