The Founding of Westmont
In 1945, Montecito Became Home to the Christian College
Westmont College is largely the result of one woman’s vision. In August 1937, Ruth Kerr awoke from a sound sleep. God had spoken to this deeply religious woman and had told her the time was right to open a Bible school. This was the beginning of Westmont College.
Ruth Kerr became president of the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company (anyone who does canning or preserving should recognize the name) in 1930, five years after her husband’s death. Using funds from her successful company, she opened the Bible Missionary Institute in Los Angeles in 1937 with 72 students and 16 staff. Two years later, the school added some liberal arts courses and changed its name to Western Bible College. The metamorphosis continued the following year under the leadership of Dr. Wallace L. Emerson. The school moved to larger facilities in Los Angeles, became a four-year liberal arts college built upon Christian principles, and changed its name one last time to Westmont College. Why Westmont? According to Emerson, because the “name sounded all right.” Classes began in the fall of 1940 with a faculty of 33 and with 85 students.
These were lean years. The library was initially developed by purchasing volumes at used book stores and estate sales. Faculty was not always paid; at one point Dr. Emerson sold his car to help pay his teachers. Still, enrollment grew during the war years, with more than 300 students attending by 1946. The college had outgrown its campus, and in 1944, Westmont purchased a former golf course in Altadena to develop a new home. Neighbors objected; they wanted the course to become a public park, and there were concerns over traffic, parking, and noise. There may also have been a racial element involved, for Westmont enrolled students of all races, and the proposed new campus was in a strictly all-white neighborhood.
