With origins as “a public junior college of the first class,” on Sept. 17, 1923, the institution that was to become Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas opened as South Park Junior College with 125 students and a faculty of fourteen. In 1932 the name of the institution was changed to Lamar College, to honor Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas and the “Father of Education” in Texas.
In 1949 the Texas Legislature approved legislation creating Lamar State College of Technology, making the institution the first junior college in Texas to become a four-year, state-supported institution of higher learning. As a state-supported senior college Lamar continued to grow, building strong programs in engineering, education, business, sciences, and the arts.
In 1962 the College of Graduate Studies was established. The Doctor of Engineering degree was established in 1971. That same year the Texas Legislature changed the institution’s status from Lamar State College of Technology to Lamar University. The Doctor of Education in Deaf Studies/Deaf Education was established in 1993, the Doctor of Audiology in 2003, the Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership in 2004, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering in 2005.
In 1995 the Lamar University System, consisting of Lamar University, Lamar State College at Orange, Lamar State College at Port Arthur, and the Lamar Institute of Technology, was merged with the Texas State University System, consisting of Sam Houston State University, Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos), and Sul Ross State University.
