The Luna Colleges began as the Luna Memorial Institute, an academic high school founded in 1926 in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, by Hon. Jose P.  Melencio, former Resident Commissioner to Washington, D.C. It was named after Gen. Antonio Luna, a national hero who was assassinated in the place. A few years later, the controlling interests were bought by prominent people of San Jose, Nueva Ecija and it was moved to this latter town. The late couple Judge Felix L. Mamenta, Sr., Marceliana Malinit Mamenta, together with Don Francisco V. Arzadon, Sr., Don   Domingo L. Rivera and Don Catalino M. Gan bought it in 1934 and was finally moved to Tayug, Pangasinan.

It started classes in Tayug, Pangasinan on June 4, 1934 with the auspicious number of 123 students. Through the earnest, devoted and untiring efforts of the administration and teachers, the school attracted the attention and patronage of all elements. Yearly   enrollment steadily increased which reached its peak before the outbreak of the war in December, 1941. However, operation of the school was interrupted by World War II. The Mamentas gave the use of their partially bombed-out school buildings to the U.S. troops for Division Signal Installations. A switchboard and radio facilities were established as message center located nearby. The existing elementary building was built by the American Troops.

In February, 1945 soon after the liberation of Tayug from the Japanese by the Americans, the school was reopened to offer completion courses to its 1941 students. Even with the shelling of Japanese positions and nightly blackouts, classes went on, students and teachers alike, bent on making up for the years lost during the Japanese occupation. Classrooms were under battered houses, under the trees or in tents using whatever equipment and books the school was able to save after the war.

Simultaneously, academic enhancement and material expansion went on. The rented building used before the war in the town proper, which was damaged during the liberation, forced the school management to move the school to its present four-hectare site.

In answer to a felt need and demand for higher education of the people in this corner of the country, the Luna Memorial Institute was reorganized as Luna Junior College in November 1945. Additional courses were offered. It included two-year courses in Normal, Liberal Arts and Commerce and vocational courses in dressmaking, embroidery, typewriting and stenography. The Luna Junior College became the LUNA COLLEGES in 1948 offering baccalaureate degrees.

Eventually, the Graduate School was opened on July 1, 1963 offering the Master of Arts in Psychology. In the course of time, the Master of Arts Major in Educational Management was an additional offering. Alongside these academic advancements, the school undertook infrastructure expansion, moving from its rented wartime location to a permanent four-hectare campus.

The school celebrated its Golden Anniversary in March 1984 with the presence of many honorable and distinguished alumni.

On February 2009, it celebrated its Diamond Jubilee Anniversary. Again, the event was successfully held with many alumni here and abroad gracing it.

The Sangguniang Bayan of Tayug, Pangasinan had declared Luna Colleges as the oldest educational institution in existence in the municipality as per resolution numbered  2016-025 dated September 8, 2016.

Today, Luna Colleges celebrates its 90th Founding Anniversary in time for the Grand Alumni Homecoming.