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The first board of directors was composed of seventeen well-known influential citizens of St. Louis, who were named in the charter and who were given the power to fill vacancies in their number caused by death or resignation. To this board made up of many of the most prominent and successful professional and business men of St. Louis much of the success of the university is due. Not only have they at all times been most generous in their gifts, but by their careful and broad-minded administration of the affairs of the institution, they have carried it through several financial crises and brought it to its present prosperous condition and to its place of commanding influence in the educational world.

The beginnings, like those of most of the educational institutions of the country that have not had a munificent gift from some philanthropic