The impetus for a college campus in its current location began in 1957 when members of the Bellerive Country Club put their 53-year-old club house and grounds on the market for $1.3 million as they planned to move to larger quarters in
Town and Country, Missouri. At the same time members of
Normandy, Missouri School District began debating the need of creating an affordable
junior college to offer an alternative to the much more expensive privately owned
Saint Louis University and
Washington University in St. Louis. Country Club members approached the Board and the asking price was dropped to $600,000. A bond issue on September 30, 1958, received the necessary two-thirds majority and the golf club was turned over to Normandy on May 31, 1960. A group of board members and citizens popularly referred to as "The Committee of Twenty-eight" began the process to set up the
junior college. The group met with
Elmer Ellis, president of the
University of Missouri. Interest in a four-year school immediately arose. In 1963, the original MU campuses in Columbia and
Rolla were merged with the privately owned
University of Kansas City to form the present day University of Missouri System. The newly formed system immediately won permission to upgrade the Normandy center to a full-fledged four-year institution. The transfer from the Normandy school district to the University of Missouri System was delayed when the
Missouri Supreme Court in 4–3 decision ruled that the school could not transfer the property without a formal open bid process. The
Missouri General Assembly enacted legislation signed by Governor
John Dalton on October 13, 1963, enabling the transfer and the university bought the property for $60,000 from unallocated funds at the university's disposal. With expanding enrollment classes were held in a
laundromat building at Natural Bridge and Hanley and in a church basement across from the campus while buildings were built on the site of the former Bellerive Country Club. Benton Hall opened in 1965, Clark Hall and the Library were the next buildings built. On July 23, 1973, an
Ozark Airlines Fairchild Hiller FH-227B Flight 809 from
Nashville International Airport crashed into the campus just east of the Mark Twain complex while attempting to land at
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. In 1976
Marillac College was acquired. It is now called the "south campus."
Chancellors , Chancellor Emeritus|alt= Chancellors of the school are: James L. Bugg Jr., 1965–1969
Glen Driscoll, 1969–1972 :
Everett Walters, interim, 1972–1973
Joseph Hartley, 1973–1974 :
Emery Turner, interim, 1974–1975
Arnold Grobman, 1975–1985 :
Arthur MacKinney, interim, 1985–1986
Marguerite Ross Barnett, 1986–1990
Blanche Touhill, 1990–2002 :
Donald Driemeier, interim, 2003
Thomas F. George, 2003–2019
Kristin Sobolik, 2019–Current (Retiring July, 2026) ==Express Scripts World Headquarters Campus at NorthPark==