Allen College (Campus History)

By: Marcea K. Seible

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Synopsis: In the early 1920s, Waterloo businessman Henry B. Allen donated $200,000 and 80 acres of land to the Allen Memorial Hospital Association to establish a hospital in memory of Mary, his wife. The hospital opened in 1925 and was operated by the Deaconess Hospital Association of the Evangelical Church. The School of Nursing was founded in 1925, but a lack of resources during the Depression forced the hospital into receivership and the school was closed. Hospital management was assumed by the Lutheran Good Samaritan Society in 1938, and the school reopened in 1942 as the Allen Memorial Hospital Lutheran School of Nursing. In 1989, the school became Allen College of Nursing, a degree-granting institution. Today, as Allen College–UnityPoint Health, it offers an associate degree in radiography; bachelor of science degree in nursing; bachelor of health science degree with majors in diagnostic medical sonography, nuclear medicine technology, medical laboratory science, public health, and dental hygiene; master of science degrees in nursing and occupational therapy; and two doctoral degrees in health professions education and nursing practice. Throughout its 90-year history, Allen College has remained faithful in its mission to prepare health care professionals for their roles in society.