Eugene Claremont Sanderson

Eugene C. Sanderson
Founder and first President of Eugene Divinity School, Eugene, Oregon
Born	March 24, 1859 Greenville, Ohio, USA
Died	February 16, 1940(1940-02-16) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, USA
Education	Oskaloosa College Drake University University of Chicago
Occupation	Minister and educator

Eugene C. Sanderson (March 24, 1859 – February 16, 1940) was an American Christian minister and educator who founded Eugene Divinity School (EDS) in Eugene, Oregon in 1895. Today this school is known as Northwest Christian University. He served as its first president from 1895 to 1930. He also founded four other Christian colleges and one hospital.

Sanderson was born on March 24, 1859 in Greenville, Ohio. Sanderson moved to Washington State in 1886 and pastored Christian Churches in Palouse, Colfax, Ellensburg, Sumner, Vancouver, and Olympia. In 1894 he was pastor at First Christian Church in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Sanderson saw a need to train ministers for the Christian Church in the Pacific Northwest. To do so, he returned to Chicago and completed his doctorate. In early 1895, he took part in a meeting in Eugene, Oregon to discuss establishing a school to train ministers. He strongly believed that locating ministerial schools near state institutions of higher education provided the best of both worlds. Thus, he deliberately located EDS next to the University of Oregon (UO) near East 11th Avenue and Alder Street to take advantage of the UO liberal arts program while EDS focused primarily on the ministerial courses including Bible, theology, music, and oratory. Eugene Divinity School became Eugene Bible University (EBU) in 1908. In 1908 the Administration Building was constructed. It is three stories tall and was constructed of volcanic stone from southern Oregon. Other buildings were constructed during his tenure, including the Music Building.

During the 1920s Eugene Bible University, under Sanderson’s leadership, expanded to include a number of other enterprises by incorporating the International Bible Mission (IBM). These two institutions were closely linked, especially financially. During the Great Depression, both EBU and IBM found themselves overextended and financially in default. Operations were scaled back to just the Eugene campus of EBU.