Gannon University

Gannon University was first established in 1933 as the two-year Cathedral College by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie. In 1944, the school became the four-year men's school Gannon College of Arts and Sciences, named in honor of the then-Bishop of Erie, John Mark Gannon, the driving force behind its opening and development. The college became coeducational in 1964 and gained university status in 1979.[2][3] The all-girls school Villa Maria College, which was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1925,[4] merged with the university in 1989.[5] Its Villa Maria School of Nursing retains the name of the original institution.