Gonzaga University
private Catholic Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, US
Gonzaga University ( ghən-ZAG-ə; GU) is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, a Sicilian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the university is named after the young Jesuit saint Aloysius Gonzaga. The campus houses 105 buildings on 152 acres (62 ha) of grassland alongside the Spokane River, in a residential setting a half-mile (800 m) from downtown Spokane.
The university grants bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its college and six schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business Administration, School of Education, School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Law, School of Nursing and Human Physiology, and the School of Leadership Studies.
History
Founding
Gonzaga University was founded in 1887 by Sicilian-American Joseph Cataldo (1837–1928), who had come in 1865 as a Jesuit missionary to the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. In 1880, Cataldo built a schoolhouse about 10 to 12 mi (16 to 19 km) northeast of Spokane on the Peone Prairie, to serve children of the Upper Spokane Indians. Cataldo was concerned about the influence and expansion of Protestant schools on the region's native people, and by 1881 was discussing building a Jesuit college with other Jesuit leaders.
The Jesuits chose a location at Spokane Falls (later Spokane) due to its centrality in the Washington, Idaho and Montana region. The Jesuits purchased 320 acres of prime real estate in the city's central business district north of the Spokane River for $936.
The public source identifies “Gonzaga University” as private Catholic Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, US. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gonzaga, University and private.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1537303. VIAF identifies the subject as 144246064. The Library of Congress control number is n80097965. Authority coordinates are 47.667, -117.402. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1837, 1928 and 1865.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gonzaga University” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.