Sacred Heart University was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport from 1961 to 1988. It was established to provide the community with a quality liberal arts education for all at a local Catholic university. From its outset, the University bore the mark of innovation. Charting a new direction within American Catholicism, the University was to be led and staffed by lay people, independent and locally oriented, serving the needs of the diocese and of southwestern Connecticut.