Fr. Roque N. Fidel, then parish priest of Our Lady of the Pillar Parish, founded OLPCC in 1956. It started as a secondary school with Mr. Vicente Talosig as Principal. The original site of the school was a two-storey building at the Parish Church compound. In 1979, a two-hectare lot was donated to the Roman Catholic for educational purpose, particularly the possible expansion of OLPI to tertiary level of education. It was during this time that Msgr. Marino D. Gatan, then parish priest and OLPI director, started applying for authority to offer college courses. After sometime, Our Lady of the Pillar Institution opened its College Department offering Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1979. in 1980, it started Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Accounting. That same year, the school opened its kindergarten which prompted the transfer of the senior high school students to the new OLPI site. In 1984, the pioneers of the college department graduated. Today, they are now employed in various establishments in the city and elsewhere, proving that OLPCC had trained and prepared its students for the world of work. The following year, OLPCC scored a milestone achievement when its students garnered 100 percent passing rate in the Licensure Examination for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs).

To answer the current need for high level education and professional competencies and to make Pillarican catholic education more responsive to the needs of the time, particularly the community and industry, OLPCC offered new courses such as Bachelor in Secondary Education (BSEd), Bachelor in Elementary Education (BEEd), majors in Science and Mathematics, Computer Courses, and additional majors in Bachelor of Arts, and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

In 1996, OLPI became a member of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) which paved the way for the opening of its graduate courses in Master in Business Administration, Thesis and Non-thesis programs, Master of Arts in Educational management, Master in Public Administration and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. In the succeeding years, Engineering, Criminology and Nursing programs were offered.