Multnomah University (MU) is a non-denominational Christian university in Portland, Oregon. On February 14, 1936, Rev. John G. Mitchell called a meeting of Portland-area ministers and Christian businessmen to discuss the idea of creating a Bible school in the Pacific Northwest. Mitchell, working with Dr. B.B. Sutcliffe, Dr. Willard Aldrich and others, founded Multnomah School of the Bible that year. The following October, classes began with 49 students and a half-dozen faculty in a former mortuary. In 1943, Willard Aldrich became president of the school. At 34, he was the youngest president of a college in the United States. The Multnomah Graduate School of Ministry was founded as a related institution in 1986 and was renamed later to Multnomah Biblical Seminary. In 1993, the college was renamed Multnomah Bible College. On July 1, 2008, the overarching name of the institution was changed to Multnomah University.