L. Paul Gresham was born January 3, 1911 at Portales, Territory of New Mexico. The following year his family traveled by covered wagon to their new home in Altus, Oklahoma. They settled on a farm and became faithful members of the Altus Church of the Nazarene for decades to come. In 1929, Paul graduated with honors from Ozark High School in the spring and entered Bethany-Peniel College in August. Just two months later the stock market crashed and initiated the Great Depression. Due to economic circumstances, Paul completed his sophomore year at Altus Junior College, but returned to Bethany-Peniel (now Southern Nazarene University) where he graduated cum laude in 1933. Having earned a masters degree from the University of Oklahoma, Paul was hired to teach at Bresee College in Hutchinson, Kansas. Though on faculty only one year, he said, I am persuaded that none Ive lived since has been better. This, of course, was the year he met colleague Martha Elizabeth Dewitt, whom he married June 10, 1936 at Muncie (Indiana) First Church of the Nazarene. For the next 18 years Martha and Paul taught at Trevecca Nazarene College (now University) in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also served as dean from 1946 to 1954. During that time Paul earned his Ph.D from Vanderbilt University (1943), was the principal of Trevecca High School and became the proud father of two sons, Loren Paul and Daniel Kay Gresham. Dr. Gresham moved his family to Hawaii in 1954, where he taught at Honolulu Christian College (now Hawaii Pacific University) and served as the acting president for two years. Once back on the mainland, he remained on the west coast for 22 years as a professor of history (1955-1966) and eventually academic dean at Pasadena College and Point Loma College (now Point Loma Nazarene University) in San Diego (after its relocation from Pasadena) until his official retirement in 1977. The Greshams returned to Bethany, and Dr. Gresham returned to the classroom to teach history for three years. He also assisted in accreditation studies and wrote grant applications, one of which resulted in construction of the greenhouse adjacent to the Don Beaver Science Building on the SNU campus. Enjoying retirement, Dr. Gresham researched and wrote the biography Waves Against Gibraltar: A Memoir of Dr. A.M. Hills (1992) as well as co-authoring with Dr. Loren Gresham From Many Came One, in Jesus Name: Southern Nazarene University Looks Back on a Century (1998).
