"One of the members of the school board, Swen Anderson, did not make a formal speech (at the cornerstone laying for North Park University's first building in Chicago on Sept. 26, 1893), but he did make a suggestion the result of which was destined to last long after the speeches had been forgotten. In Sweden he had seen a large school building with the motto over the entrance: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Herrens fruktan är vishetens begynnelse). He expressed a hope that this spiritual truth would be inscribed on the new building. The idea met with an enthusiastic response and it was forthwith decided to chisel in stone the beautiful precept."
--From Leland Carlson, A History of North Park College, North Park College and Theological Seminary, 1941.