In 1887, Robert Fulton Cutting, treasurer of the ECUSA, donated $5,000 to an Episcopalian bishop in Liberia for the establishment of a school for teaching Liberian children — regardless of ethnicity — about industry and agriculture. The university was finally established in 1889 by
Samuel David Ferguson in
Cape Palmas, where it remained until 1929. Named Cuttington College when it opened, M. P. Keda Valentine served as the first principal followed by Samuel Taylor. Some of the earliest graduates included "two
chief justices of the
Liberian Supreme Court and three associate justices, one
minister of education and many
civil servants". In 1948, the college moved to
Suacoco in
Bong County, 120 miles north of Liberia's capital of
Monrovia. Prior to the
First Liberian Civil War, 45% of government officials were alumni of the college. During the First Liberian Civil War from 1989 to 1996, the school was looted and the structures were damaged and the campus used as a training facility for militias. From 1990 to 1997, the school operated only at an office in the U.S. state of
Virginia. In 1998, the now Cuttington University College re-opened with a class of 103 students. The college has now reopened for the third time in its history (the second founding at its current location was in 1948), after a lengthy period of civil conflict. On August 15, 2004, 117 students graduated on the war-ravaged campus in various disciplines, with the highest number of graduates being in nursing.
War damage On February 5, 2004, the President of Cuttington, Dr. Henrique F. Tokpa met his son Captain Matthew J. Denkyan of the
U.S. Army, who was assigned to Liberia as a military observer. They were part of an inspection team who toured the partially renovated facilities which had been damaged by looters during the war: • The Dunbar Building, which houses the office of Registrar; bookstore and a few classrooms had been de-roofed and heavy and repeated rain storms had damaged the ceiling, roofing frame and nearly all of the books that had been previously donated by the County College of Morris in
Randolph,
New Jersey, USA. • The AFRICANA Museum is in similar condition to the Dunbar Building (zinc and ceiling material have been removed by looters and the roofing timbers had been exposed to the weather and only the concrete walls and rafters remained in place. • The Tubman Library had sustained less structural damage, but extensive looting and on site destruction of books and facilities has taken place there. • The Seth C. Edwards cafeteria has been partially de-roofed and some of the roofing timbers had collapsed. • A grass fire had destroyed a building that had been built by the
Lutheran Church as the guest house for commuting professors. The fire had created extensive cracks in the structure and will have to be demolished. The cause of the grass fire is unknown, during the dry Harmattan season grass fires are common, but due to the war they burned out of control. • The newly constructed Power House which was constructed with a
USAID and
ASHA grant is relatively intact although looters entered the building, less damage was done.The current president of the Cuttington University is Dr. Romelle Horton the institution 13th president. ==Details==