Ateneo de Davao University

The Ateneo de Davao University is one of nine schools in the Philippines owned and operated by the Society of Jesus. The school tradition at Ateneo de Davao University is the product of over four centuries of educational experience of the Society. This tradition started with the establishment of a College at Messina in 1547 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and which is now found in very many educational institutions throughout the world managed by the Society of Jesus.

At the request of the Most Reverend Luis del Rosario S.J., Bishop of Zamboanga, which then included Davao, the Jesuit Fathers took over St. Peter’s Parochial School and founded the Ateneo de Davao in 1948. The founding Fathers were led by Fr. Theodore E. Daigler S.J., who became the first Rector of the school. The other founding Fathers were Frs. Alfredo Paguia S.J. and Grant Quinn S.J. and Scholastics James Donelan S.J. and Rodolfo Malasmas S.J. On 20 May 1948, Ateneo de Davao was registered with the SEC with SEC Registration No. 3467 as a non-stock, non-profit, education institution.

When the Ateneo de Davao formally opened in 28 June 1948, it offered Grades V and VI and 1st to 3rd year high school. There were 71 elementary students and 131 high school students who started in a wooden building on a six-hectare lot in Matina.

The Jacinto campus was obtained in 1951 with the generous support of the Most Rev. Clovis Thibault, P.M.E., Bishop-Prelate of Davao. The campus provided classrooms for high school students in the daytime and college courses in the evenings. College course offerings then were liberal arts, commerce, education, associate in arts, pre-law, secretarial and an elementary teacher’s certificate program. There were 130 male college students at the July 1951 start of the College Department, and they were housed in the wooden Bellarmine Hall. In 1953, the Ateneo de Davao College became co-educational. By then, there were 9 collegiate course programs offered.

A credit union for Ateneo de Davao students was organized by one of its faculty members, Ms. Elsa Escaño in 1956.

By 1960, the population of the College Department had greatly increased, requiring the construction of a five-story building, Canisius Hall. The next year, the College of Law was started, to respond to the demand of pre-law students who wanted to have a quality Catholic legal education at the Ateneo de Davao.