Arlington Baptist University

Arlington Baptist College, a four-year, private, coeducational institution of higher education, was established in Fort Worth in 1939 as the Fundamental Baptist Bible Institute by Louis Entzminger, an associate of Baptist minister J. Frank Norris. The school was organized to train ministers and missionaries who would teachthe literal inerrancy of the Bible-an objective that has remained central to the institution to the present. Entzminger served as the college's only faculty member during its initial year, when the enrollment was sixteen. The first classes met in an upstairs room of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, and its first graduates became pastors or missionaries working through the World Fundamental Baptist Fellowship.

Though it grew some, the school largely maintained its humble origins during its first twenty years of existence. It was apparently moved a number of times to various leased properties in Fort Worth. In 1945 its name was changed to Bible Baptist Seminary. Norris served as president in 1950–51. In 1952 the school moved to Arlington and took on the name Arlington Baptist College. At the same time, it discontinued its high school curriculum and became a four-year, undergraduate institution. In 1956 the school, which had maintained itself through a combination of tuition and fees, gifts, and contributions from churches and individuals, purchased the tract of land on which it is now located. By the 1962–63 school year enrollment had grown to 225.