West Virginia University (WVU) traces its roots to 1867, four years after the state of West Virginia was founded. Pharmacy education at WVU began in 1914 on the main campus in Morgantown as a department within the School of Medicine. The first cohort of students—all four male—graduated in 1917, followed shortly thereafter by the first two female graduates in 1920.
In 1936, dedicated space in historic Woodburn Hall was provided to establish a separate WVU College of Pharmacy, with J. Lester Hayman serving as the founding dean. For the next 70 years, it remained the only formal pharmacy education program serving the needs of West Virginia. In 1958, the College became the School of Pharmacy and moved to the newly constructed WVU Health Sciences Center, where it remains today.
Professional degrees in pharmacy conferred at WVU have evolved over time: Pharmaceutical Graduate (1915), Pharmaceutical Chemist (1920), Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (1917; expanded to a five-year program in 1962), post-BS PharmD (1993), and the all-PharmD program (1998). The graduate program began in 1978, with the first PhD awarded in 1982. It was later subdivided into two programs: Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, and Health Services and Outcomes Research.