Pepperdine University - Promenade Yearbook (Malibu, CA)

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GPC transformed into Malibu's Pepperdine University miracle Sautter Chapel, left, the Pendelton Learning Center, Payson Library and Phillips Tower, all part of Pepperdine University s skyline, form a memory taken from the campus as students graduate and take up life's work. Sept. 21.1937. The doors of George Pepperdine College. ’GPC' os it would come to be known, opened for the first time in south central Los Angeles to less than 200 students. Fifty years later, more than 2,200 undergraduate students witness the golden anniversary of what is now Pepperdine University. Atop sparkling hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean, they stand celebrating the university's 15-year old Malibu campus. For a school that was founded just after the Great Depression. Pepperdine has come a long way in a short time. In April 1938. less than seven months after its inception. GPC was granted full accreditation by its regional accrediting agency. The college grew steadily, attracting noteworthy professors and a high quality of students who would distinguish themselves in many walks of life. This was the goal of George Pepperdine, who had estdbiished the college to help young men and women prepare for a life of usefulness and build a foundation of Christian faith and character. He had been highly successful in business, but saw those achievements only as a beginning to true prosperity in life. He wanted to help humanity rather than use his fortune selfishly. The motto of the college he established, 'Freely ye received, freely give, echoed this philosophy. After his death on July 31. 1962. it was through the dedication 4 opening

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of his wife Helen and other supporters that GPC grew to attain university status in 1970. In 1972. a new campus in Malibu was opened. It was called Frank R. Seaver College in memory of the industnal statesman who made it possible. Seaver made generous gifts to the university during his life and Included Pepperdine in his will. After his death in 1961. the efforts of his wife Blanche contributed a great deal to the development of Seaver College. The giving spirit, to which many others have responded, has made continued growth and advancement possible throughout the school s 50-year existence. Expansion from a 34-acre campus in Los Angeles to a multi-million dollar 475-acre plot of choice land in Malibu would never have been possible without the devotion of donors who v ere truly interested in investing in the future. The miracle of Malibu is but one symbol of the progress Pepperdine has experienced during the years. A variety of graduate programs and academic facilities in England. Germany and Italy flourish today. In 1986, less than 50 years after GPC opened in Los Angeles, a U.S. News and World Report poll of college presidents across the United States recognized Peperdine Univesity as No. 1 among 151 institutions in the category of 'comprehensive universities' West of the Mississippi. Pepperdine is a university committed to academic excellence and devoted to God. It is a place where lives are changed, minds are opened and lasting friendships are formed. This is what there is to celebrate, for it is these things that are truly golden. JENNIE SINE Downtown Malibu and the Pacific Ocean from hill above Phillips Tower give Pepperdine University students a picturesque view. Seaver College with its facilities and student residence homes on the Malibu campus provide the undergraduates numbering 2,500 a place of beauty for study and fellowship. opening 5