[1] At the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, William H. Jordan heard Dwight L. Moody speak about the importance of training students for the Christian ministry.
[3] Jordan served the institute for the next thirty-one years, first as president until September 4, 1942, and then as chairman of the board until resigning on May 19, 1952.
[4] From 1942 to 1947, the institute had a series of deans including Harold A. Wilson, Ralph C. Nelson, Paul Sawtell, and Albert Schultz.
Later in March, the board of directors met to answer the question: "Shall we continue to keep the school, or shall we sell the property, clear the debt, and let the students go to other Bible institutes and colleges?"
The next evening, only John L. Patten, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Omaha, and the institute's dean of women, H. Nell Malen, expressed the need for the school to continue.
Both "contended that the Midwest area needed a school that would teach fundamental, Biblical Christianity and complete separation from and not compromise with modernism in any form.
As president emeritus, he continued to teach at the college until his health forced his full retirement in 1975.
[11] Later, on June 1, 1965, the board appointed David Nettleton, formerly pastor of the Grand View Baptist Church, Des Moines, as college president.