Blue Mountain College

Blue Mountain College (BMC) is a private college supported by the Mississippi Baptist Convention and located in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. Founded as a women's college in 1873, the college's board of trustees voted unanimously for the college to go fully coeducational in 2005.

For the New Zealand school, see Tapanui. For the unrelated television series, see Blue Mountain State.

History
Blue Mountain Female College

By 1873, the college was founded as a woman's college by Confederate Brigadier-General Mark Perrin Lowrey, a pastor who was known as "a preacher general" during the war. Blue Mountain Female Institute, as it was called at first, started with 50 students with Lowrey and his two daughters serving as the faculty. In 1877, the college was officially chartered by the State of Mississippi. Lowrey, his sons W. T. and B. G., and grandson Lawrence Lowrey all served as the first four presidents.

After the sudden death of President Lowrey in 1960, a longtime professor at the school, Dr. Wilfred Tyler, became the first non-Lowrey family president followed by Dr. E. Harold Fisher in 1965. Dr. Bettye Rogers Coward served as the seventh president from 2001 to 2012. Dr. Janice I. Nicholson, a BMC alumna, served as transitional president prior to Dr. Barbara Childers McMillin's becoming the eighth president on August 1, 2012.

Originally an independently owned institution, the college was turned over to the Mississippi Baptist Convention in 1920 by the Lowrey Family. It remained focused on women's education until 1956 when a program to train men for church-related vocations was started. In October 2005, the college's board of trustees voted to make the school fully coeducational.

Notable alumni

Athletics

Blue Mountain teams are known as the Toppers. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Starting in the 2013-14 season, the Toppers joined the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC). Men's sports include archery, baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, and tennis. Women's sports include archery, basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, and tennis.

References

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