Kettering College of Medical Arts, occupying a suburban campus near Dayton in southwest Ohio, is a coeducational college owned by the Kettering Medical Center and chartered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. When the College first opened its doors in 1967, more than 100 freshmen were enrolled, many of whom became the first graduates in 1969. The state charter granted in 1968 empowered the College, as the educational component of Kettering Medical Center, to conduct instruction in the arts, sciences, and allied health professions.

"It must be an educational center as well as a medical service center, involved in preparing young people for satisfying lives of service here and in other institutions of the world." These were some of the words with which Eugene W. Kettering set aside 35 acres of the family estate as the campus for a proposed medical center to commemorate the name and ideas of his father, Charles F. Kettering, soon after the great inventor's death in 1958.

The historic pattern of education in medical institutions has been one of apprenticeship, in-service training, and service-oriented lectures. Over the years, however, the strength of academic methods, organization, and presentation of instruction in allied health and nursing curricula has been effectively demonstrated. Thus it was determined by the founders that the educational purpose of the medical center should be served by the establishment of an academic institution offering curricula in a variety of health careers, as well as arts and sciences.