Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College opened in September of nineteen forty-six with eighty-six students, seven faculty members, and a clear sense of purpose. Most of the first students, like the college's founding president George Benson, were veterans who had just come home from World War Two. Benson designed the curriculum around a specific goal: preparing leaders for public and private life through rigorous study of economics and government.

The college was incorporated as Claremont Men's College in the spring of nineteen forty-seven, one of a cluster of small institutions that would become the Claremont Colleges consortium. It went coeducational in nineteen seventy-six and took its current name in nineteen eighty-one in honor of donor Donald McKenna. Today it is considered one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the country, particularly in economics, government, and public affairs.