Pacific University originated from a school established in 1842 by the Reverend and Mrs. Harvey Clark at Glencoe, a tiny settlement north of Forest Grove, to serve Native American children. Being a private institution in the public service has characterized Pacific ever since.
In 1846, a remarkable 66-year-old widow completed a rugged trip west with her family to live in the Oregon Territory. Tabitha Moffatt Brown finally made it to Oregon, but not before undergoing much hardship.

At one point on the journey by wagon train, she was left alone on the trail in the bitter cold with her ailing 77-year-old brother-in-law. She pulled them through, despite being near starvation, and they reached the temperate Willamette Valley on Christmas Day.

Tabitha Brown and the Clarks, concerned for the welfare of the many orphans in the area, made arrangements for using a local meeting house as an orphan school, and by 1848, Mrs. Brown was "house-mother" to the students and had become a driving force behind the school.

In the summer of 1848, the Rev. George H. Atkinson came to Oregon, commissioned by the Home Missionary Society of the Congregational Church Association to "found an academy that shall grow into a college... on the New England model." Atkinson and Clark drew up plans for a new educational institution, based on the orphan school. In September of 1849, the Territorial Legislature gave its official sanction to the new school, establishing by charter the Tualatin Academy. By 1854 a new charter had been granted, establishing "Tualatin Academy and Pacific University."

Pacific University awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1863 - one of the first awarded in the western United States. Harvey W. Scott, recipient of the degree, went on to become editor of The Portland Oregonian -- now the state's largest daily newspaper -- and later established himself as an influential political figure. Scott's legacy at Pacific is honored in the Harvey W. Scott Memorial Library, built in 1967. The growth of a local public high school caused the Tualatin Academy to be closed in 1915 and Pacific University stood on its own -- a pioneer institution of higher education.
 

In 1945, the University expanded into the health professions through a merger with the Pacific Northwest College of Optometry.

Other health professions programs were added later, including Physical Therapy in 1975, Occupational Therapy in 1984 and Professional Psychology in 1985. In 1995, the School of Education was established through reorganization of the professional teacher education programs that had been part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Congregational missionaries in the West were key leaders in the establishment and growth of the University, and that legacy is still regarded as an important influence within it. Pacific, along with such colleges as Dartmouth, Carleton, Oberlin, Grinnell, Rollins, and Pomona celebrates a tradition of 350 years, dating back to the establishment of higher education in America with the founding of Harvard College by Congregational pioneers on the first American frontier. As an independent University, Pacific continues to maintain ties with the United Church of Christ Council for Higher Education. It supports religious pluralism and it is committed to instilling in the students and program a sense of values and ethics, compassion, caring, and conscience.