History

“In every way, the Northwestern Michigan College is a people’s college. It was conceived in a regional desire for education and is being financed from the pockets of the poor and rich alike.”

TRAVERSE CITY RECORD-EAGLE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1951

These words were part of an “opening day” story about NMC in the local newspaper — and they describe the whole mission and spirit of the institution, then and now. NMC was established because the citizens of northwest Michigan wanted the benefits of higher education for their children and themselves.

Citizens’ commitment and involvement has distinguished NMC from the beginning. “It’s a can-do college,” one of our trustees has said. “Always has been.” From the college’s earliest home in borrowed facilities at the local airport, NMC moved in 1956 to a spacious 100-acre campus under the pines and today has facilities at four additional locations in the Grand Traverse area.

NMC has become a source of “education” in the largest sense, a source of meaningful new knowledge, skills and experiences. This is our mission, after all, to “provide lifelong learning opportunities to our communities.”

Three volumes of NMC history have been published (the links below are to PDF versions of the books):

• “Northwestern Michigan College: The First Twenty Years, 1951–1971,” by Preston N. Tanis, published in 1973 and reprinted in 1992
• "Northwestern Michigan College: The Second Twenty Years, 1971–1991,” by Al Shumsky, with Carole Marlatt, published in 1994
• "Under the Pines: The Third Twenty Years, 1992–2011,” published in 2013

Published in 2014, A Colorful Cast is a retrospective chronicling the rise of visual arts in the Grand Traverse region and the legacy and rich history of the NMC Art Department. It is available for $29.95 in the Dennos Museum Store.

View film footage from 1973

Access the NMC Archives