Activate map
Paid |
Specialties
Drury offers bright, achieving students a commitment to personalized education and diversity. Students expect — and are expected — to explore great ideas and confront questions that will successfully prepare them for dynamic careers and enhanced lives as active global participants. A Drury education combines professional training with the liberal arts.
History
Established in 1863.
Drury began in 1873. It was organized by Congregational home missionaries who felt the need for an academically strong liberal arts college in the area. Patterned after the Congregationalist liberal-arts colleges of the North, such as Oberlin, Carleton, Dartmouth, Yale and Harvard, the college would offer an environment of strong academic discourse and intellectual achievement. After much debate, Springfield was chosen over Neosho, Mo., as the college’s location. Four men then joined to organize and endow what they named Springfield College: James Harwood and Charles Harwood of Springfield, The Rev. Nathan Morrison of Olivet, Mich., and Samuel Drury of Otsego, Mich. Drury’s gift of $ 25,000 was the largest, and the college was renamed for his recently deceased son. Morrison was chosen as the first president; he rang the bell to begin classes on Sept. 25, 1873.