2010 au convocation - anniversary

Celebrating 80 (1930 – 2010) and 25 (1985 – 2010) Years!

Atlantic University – the First Incarnation:
Atlantic University began as an “Association of Learning.”
The university grew out of Morton Blumenthal’s interest in education, as well as the admonition in the Edgar Cayce readings that the primary work of the association was education:
Its aim, its purpose as set forth and given, is correct; for it, the work, that accomplished, is to be first of all an educational factor in the lives of those that are contacted through the efforts of the Association. 254-42

Throughout 1929 and 1930 especially “work readings” were given on the Association of Learning / Atlantic University, including:
(Q) Regarding the plans discussed by [195 – Tim Brown] and [900 – Morton Blumenthal] for the establishment of a college at Virginia Beach, are these realizable?
(A) Realizable, plausible, feasible – and not ONLY this. These may, through their fullness of purport, gain for themselves and millions of others such a center, such an institution. The Association of Learning, in the field that would bring the more perfect understanding for self and for others. 254-48

With the backing of Morton and Edwin Blumenthal, Atlantic University was chartered on March 24, 1930.
The university began to market its program for the fall semester, 1930.
Excerpt from a letter from Edgar Cayce to H.B. Wyrick, May 1930:
…No doubt you have noticed something in the papers about the establishing of a university, or a school of learning here at Virginia Beach. This, as you may possibly surmise, is an outgrowth of the work attempted by the Association. While it is not wholly the Association work, the present Trustees of the university (the name of it is Atlantic University) are the same as the Board of Trustees of the Association. I am enclosing a booklet that will tell you something about it…

A.U.
From the general information: Starting from the center of the community … numerous cottages and hotels stretch along the beautiful coast for about six miles toward Cape Henry … The present hotels, apartment houses and boarding houses … are now being supplemented by new hotels … additional cottages and more than fifty new private residences.

When the school opened, temporary classrooms and dormitories were established at local hotels and 209 students were part of the first class. The school opened with degree programs in:
Pre-Med
Pre-Law
Pre-Engineering
Liberal Arts
Fine Arts
And included departments of Languages, English, History, Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology and Mathematics.
Student Body - 1930
The cost for tuition, room and board was $475 per year

The school had everything that was part of a university setting:
Drama Club – The Atlantic Players

AU Orchestra – The Atlantians

Football Team – The Sea Dogs

AU – School Song
Charge, A.U., down the field!
We’re behind you now!
Hit the line and put it thru for old A.U.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Never lose but always gain,
And you’ll win fame;
So team let’s
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
And show them old Atlantics might!
Oscar – The Three-Legged
School Mascot

The dream was short-lived:
From the beginning the school’s first president, Dr. William Mosely Brown, had seen AU as a large institution that would become THE university for the area. Morton Blumenthal saw it as a smaller enterprise with a much more unique curriculum.
Within a short-time the university was over-extended financially and it closed its doors mid-year, 1932.

Atlantic University – the Second Incarnation:
Dr. Brown kept the AU charter alive until 1960, when it was taken over by Hugh Lynn Cayce and Bob Adriance. The university essentially existed only on paper.
In February 1970, Janis and Fred Davidson wrote a letter to Hugh Lynn Cayce proposing that the university be resurrected from dormancy and become a residential / experiential program. That letter (and subsequent meetings) led to the rebirth of Atlantic University for a month of programs in August 1971.

Atlantic University program – August 1-31, 1971
“a creative approach to the educational needs of our time”

Five years later, Gladys Davis Turner (Board Corporate secretary and Cayce’s stenographer) reported how the university experiment (then operating at A.R.E. Camp) had grown and what that program entailed:
Since 1971 the Association of Learning (the name given in the Edgar Cayce Readings for Atlantic University) has been conducting residential seminars for small groups. Each of these INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES functions as a family unit built upon the concepts of BALANCED LIVING espoused in these Readings. The combination of physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual stimulation provided in this integrated approach to learning has proved extremely effective in aiding participants to awaken to their inner spiritual nature, and to apply resulting insights in their mental, emotion and physical interactions.
If you become a member of one of these short-term families, you can expect daily: exercise and body movement, three half-hour periods of meditation and prayer, two hours of dream work in small groups, a two-hour content seminar and/or several hours involvement in a group dynamics session. Our balanced diet emphasizes the lighter meats of fowl, lamb, and seafood as suggested in the Readings. Approximately once each week, you will work cooperatively with other family members in the kitchen and garden.

The 1976 program lineup included the following sessions:
June 7-July 2 Dreams and the Shaman, with Henry Reed and Robert Van deCastle
July 11-July 23 Freeing Karmic Patterns through Creativity, with Francis Sporer
July 25-August 7 Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, with Ann Lee Clapp and Elizabeth Dobbs
August 8-August 27 Developing Awareness of Self and Others, with Janis & Fred Davidson
And one California Session:
June 14-July 9 Meditation and the Inner Life, with Herbert & Meredith Puryear
This incarnation of AU (1971-1978) was designed as a program of balanced living, and proved to be very popular with those individuals who participated.
Another important aspect of this incarnation of AU was that during this time, Henry Reed launched the Sundance Community Dream Journal

Atlantic University – the Third Incarnation:
In 1983, at the request of the combined Board of Trustees of A.R.E. , the Edgar Cayce Foundation, and Atlantic University , Dr. James C. Windsor (former president of Christopher Newport College) was asked to undertake a feasibility study for Atlantic University.
After 18 months of deliberations, Windsor proposed a Masters degree in Transpersonal Studies, as there was a lack of opportunity in this field east of Colorado.
In February 1985, the combined Board of Trustees unanimously supported Windsor’s recommendation and hired him to serve as president of Atlantic University and the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

Atlantic University classes began with a summer session in July 1985, and a full-fledged fall semester September – December.
The program was launched with 10 classes, and a core resident faculty that included Bob Danner, Henry Reed, Scott Sparrow, Mark Thurston, and Jim Windsor.
The university was a residence program, although four of the 10 courses were offered via “independent study” – a precursor to what would become “Distance Education.”

In October 1985, Jim Windsor and Atlantic University announced the launch of a “training program in Massotherapy.” The program would evolve to become the very popular and successful “Cayce/Reilly School of Massotherapy.”
Jim Windsor resigned as president 12/31/88, and Charles Thomas Cayce assumed the role of president on an interim basis. KiethVonderOhe became Administrative Dean.
In 1989, AU graduated its first Masters’ students:

Beginning with the fall semester 1991, Ed Karn (AU student and former Revlon executive) assumed the role of acting president, Atlantic University, a role he held until March 1992, when KiethVonderOhe became acting Chief Operating Officer, while an executive search was launched.
Jerry Cardwell, former vice president of Livingston University (AL) was hired as AU’s president effective January 1, 1993.
In 1994, AU obtains DETC accreditation, officially making AU a “distance-education university.”
Cardwell’s unexpected death in July 1996 led to a new search for AU leadership. Mary Haselton assumed interim leadership until Herk Stokely took over as volunteer administrator in February 1997.

Under Stokely, AU’s distance-education program stabilized and expanded. Mark Thurston was hired as Academic Affairs Director. The Stokely/Thurston team gave AU much needed leadership stability.
Thurston created residential programs for distance-education and the “Spiritual Guidance Mentor Training” certificate program.
Stokely had agreed to serve as volunteer administrator until Charles Thomas Cayce’s retirement in 2006. At that time. the Board of Trustees consolidated the Chief Executive role of A.R.E. / A.U. into one position. Kevin Todeschi was hired 12/1/2006.
Susan Foley was hired as Business Manager of AU, and undertook the role of migrating AU’s correspondence courses onto CD.

Mark Thurston was hired by George Mason University (January 2009) and his role as Academic Affairs Director was taken on by retiree, Terry Douglas.
Douglas champions curriculum changes, including making the “final project” optional by taking additional courses. Douglas served for one year before retiring again.
In May 2010, Nan Zingrone and Carlos Alvarado were hired to: a) launch AU as a fully-functional online university; b) launch the first-of-its-kind online Masters Degree in Parapsychology; and, c) begin offering Spanish-language programs for AU.
AU’s faculty and staff worked overtime (summer/fall 2010) to migrate former correspondence courses to the online format.

AU launched its first online courses – September 2010.
In 2011/2012 AU courses will migrate to Moodle

Atlantic University’s
November 2010 Staff
Carlos Alvarado, Nan Zingrone, Lynne Miceli, Candis Collins, Mary Warren Pinnell, James Van Auken, Wendy Rains

Current Faculty
Current Program

Soon-To-Be Built Location

2010 au convocation - anniversary

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