and Robert Smith. Edward Kaelber, then assistant dean at Harvard Graduate School of Education, became the first president and was joined in 1970 by Melville P. Cote as assistant to the President and Director of Admissions and Student Affairs.
Father James Gower proposed "Acadia Peace College" as the original name for the school, though this was rejected in favor of the College of the Atlantic. The College of the Atlantic began offering its first classes in 1972 with an enrollment of just 32 students. The institution had about 300 students for the 2012–13 school year. The College of the Atlantic offers only one academic major: human ecology. Gower helped create the curriculum for the college and its academic programs.
The majority of the campus was purchased for $1 from the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate Seminary, who used the site as a monastery. Parts of the campus were also donated by the family of co-founder Bernard Cough.
== Academics ==
The school's curriculum is based on human ecology, and all first-year …
