The History of North Carolina Wesleyan College

During the 1950’s, when the flourishing and democratization of American higher education was setting an example for the rest of the world, the citizens of Rocky Mount began to plan for their own college. What those citizens had the foresight to recognize was the importance to a post-war community of an institution of higher learning. A college would be an intellectual center for the City and for Nash and Edgecombe Counties.

An offer of partnership was made to the United Methodist Church which, in the spring of 1956, announced Rocky Mount as the site of a new college. It made good sense. Rocky Mount was within twenty-five miles of the spot where plans for the first Methodist school in America had been discussed in 1780: it was in the home of the Reverend John Dickens near Eden church in Halifax County that Bishop Asbury raised the matter. Moreover, there was a strong and vital Methodist constituency in the region. Rocky Mount and the North Carolina Conference both pledged large sums of funding to build a College which, it was established, would be built in the colonial architectural style. Chartered by the State of North Carolina on October 25, 1956, a new Board of Trustees was established. Led by its first Chairman Mr. W. Jasper Smith, the Board set out to build a college. A capital campaign saw the community and the Church pledge $4 million for construction on the magnificent 200 acre property donated by the Braswell family north of the City. By 1960, the College welcomed its first class of students.

During its relatively short history, North Carolina Wesleyan has remained faithful to its goal of providing undergraduate education in a residential setting. The academic curriculum, based on the traditional liberal arts, has developed and matured into a mixture of the pure liberal arts and sciences, and of vocational degrees. During the past ten years, a strong multi-campus adult degree program has developed in Raleigh-Durham, Goldsboro and Rocky Mount. North Carolina Wesleyan’s relationship with the United Methodist Church has similarly evolved. Our diverse student body is composed of all shades of belief and non-belief. It is composed of all ages. Yet Charles Wesley’s dictum to "Unite the pair so long disjoined – knowledge and vital piety" continues to inform the academic and social life of the College.

As the College moves past a half-century, its thousands of alumni can attest to the importance Wesleyan college has meant in their lives. Sustained leadership and support from the Rocky Mount community continue to inspire the College, which is set to face the challenge of the twenty-first century with resolution, hope and vigor.