Marion Military Institute (MMI) is the nation’s oldest military junior college tracing its origin back to 1842 with the founding of Howard College in Marion, Alabama. During the Civil War, the Chapel and Lovelace Hall, both built in 1857, were used as Breckinridge Military Hospital, treating both Union and Confederate soldiers. Howard College remained in Marion until the Alabama State Baptist Convention made the decision to move the college to Birmingham, Alabama in 1887. It later becoming Samford University. At the time of the move, Colonel James T. Murfee was the Howard College president, a position he had held since coming to Marion in 1871 from the University of Alabama. Murfee along with several of the faculty and trustees, chose to remain on the existing campus in Marion and formally establish MMI. He and the new MMI Board of Trustees developed and implemented institutional policies demanding high standards for the development of character, academic excellence, and military traditions, which have been the hallmarks of MMI ever since.










