Alaska Pacific University (APU) is a small liberal arts and sciences college located in Anchorage, Alaska.[2] Originally established as Alaska Methodist University in 1957, it was founded by Peter Gordon Gould. The main campus is located adjacent to the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and the Alaska Native Medical Center. 

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The University was founded in the late 1950s as Alaska Methodist University by Peter Gordon Gould, an Aleut from Unga, Alaska. Gould became the first Alaska Native minister in the United Methodist Church later in life, and used his position to campaign for the development of a Methodist University in Alaska.

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Alaska Methodist University dedicated its campus on June 28, 1959. In April 1958, Dr. Donald F. Ebright was elected as the university's first administrative president. Frederick P. McGinnis was elected in 1960, and served as acting president to the first class of students to attend the university. Approximately 900 acres of land destined to become the site of the APU Kellogg Campus was attained in 1973 from the DeWolf-Kellogg Trust.