Spicer Adventist University

History of SAU-Ashlock Education Society’s Spicer Adventist University was established by the State Government of Maharashtra (vide Maharashtra Act No. XIV of 2014) on June 14, 2014, and was inaugurated on August 28, 2014. It belongs to the Ashlock Education Society and the Southern Asia Division of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church which is one of the 13 large Divisions of the Church which operates an internationally renowned global educational system comprising of over fifty universities, about one hundred colleges and seminaries and more than seven thousand schools which offer a distinctive and quality education to nearly two million students worldwide.Though the history of Spicer Adventist University may seem brief, it is indeed the culmination of a kaleidoscopic saga nearly a century old.  Its roots can be traced to two schools that were started in Coimbatore in the south and Lucknow in the north in 1915.  The South India Training School at Coimbatore was started in July, 1915 with Gentry G Lowry as the Principal with 15 students, more joined later.  While the “girls’ dormitory” was in one wing of their house, the boys stayed in the godown at the back of the house.  Due to the threat of plague, the School was moved from Coimbatore to Bangalore, near Bamboo Bazaar, in 1917.  The Christian Training School at Lucknow was also started with 14 students on November 3, 1915 when a visionary H R Salisbury, an educational pioneer in England and India, invited I F Blue to establish the school, but it was closed down in 1920 and many students joined the South India Training School in Bangalore.