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Grand View University rejoices this year as it celebrates its 125th anniversary. GV was founded by members of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1896, and R.R. Vestergaard was named the first president of Grand View College in 1897. The first building to be constructed was the Old Main in 1895-1896, now known as the Humphrey Center.

“Everything was in Old Main,’’ Katheryn Duffy said, music professor at GV.

Students lived, had classes and ate in Old Main back then because it was the only building on campus until War World II.

Duffy had the opportunity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of GV since she started in 1995 as an arts and music professor.

“When GV was started, they would pull together a choir to sing for like Christmas and whenever (there was) a festival,’’ Duffy said.

According to Duffy, singing was always important to GV from the beginning. They used to sing Danish and American songs, which were collected into one book called “The world of the song’’ published in 1941. Singing the holiday songs for homecoming from this book still remains a tradition in the arts and music department to this day.

Before the 21st century Grandview Avenue was still a street with parking lots, which caused more traffic. They also had some small houses along the north side of that street. The

campus did not have technology in the classrooms and they only had desktop computers in faculty staff offices.

Duffy explained that most of the students commuted, and that is why there were only two buildings for students living on campus before the 21st century: Knudsen and Nielsen.

For Duffy, the biggest change has been the student housing and student life. She said that the campus moved forward with the arrival of the current GV president.

“President Henning came in 2000, so that is when things really started to change,’’ Duffy said. 

Looking at pictures of the campus from then and comparing them to now, we can see that this university has undoubtedly changed for the better.

“The campus was less than half of the size that we are today,’’ Henning said.

Since the arrival of our 16th and current GV president, many positive changes have occurred. There were only seven sports: men’s and women’s soccer, men’s women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, baseball and softball. In addition to the Nielsen and Knudsen apartments, three more residential buildings have been added (Langrock suites, Hull apartment and suites and the L’s apartments) due to student body growth including the growth of the international student population in recent years.

Other examples of infrastructure made after the entry of President Henning were the Student Center, Rasmussen Center and the Johnson Wellness Center, which was being constructed while Sisam Arena was being renovated.

“The growth in technology has been more dramatic than anything else,’’ Henning said.

GV has the required technology to develop more interactive learning. These educational benefits do not stop, and leaders focus every day more on developing these aspects in order for the campus to become better both technically and educationally.

“Soon there will be a student portal that will replace ‘MyView,’’’ Henning said.

GV has plans to keep upgrading both hardware and all the software systems.

President Henning is proud of where GV is today. He often thinks about the history and all of the hard work that went into GV before him.

“I’ve realized that I’ve been here for just one chapter of that 125th history,’’ Henning said. 

He values the efforts of those leaders who once had to make important decisions when creating this institution, building these buildings, adding programs and starting athletics, among others. Admiring the work done in the past, continuing the legacy in the present and motivating others for the future is what these leaders show us.