Office of the President records

In 1786 a group of veterans petitioned Congress to purchase, through the Ohio Company of Associates, one-and-a-half million acres north and west of the Ohio River.

Revenue from two townships in the Ohio Company purchase was set aside for support of a university. Ohio University was chartered by the state of Ohio in 1804 as the first university in the Northwest Territory. In 1808 the university opened with three students, and in 1815 awarded its first two bachelor's degrees.

Provisions were laid out for an office of President, to be elected by the board of trustees, in the document which first established Ohio University. The position remained unfilled, however, for the first seventeen years of the university's existence. For the first several years the institution was under the sole control of the board, and only in 1808 was one man -- Rev. Jacob Lindley -- put in charge of the university's operations. His title was Preceptor of the Athens Academy and President pro tempore of the Board of Trustees. Lindley is considered to be the university's first president.

The first person to actually hold the title of President of Ohio University was James Irvine, who succeeded Lindley in 1821.

CHRONOLOGY 1808-1821: Jacob Lindley, Preceptor of the Athens Academy and President pro tempore of the Board of Trustees and First president 1821-1824: James Irvine, Second president 1824-1839: Robert G. Wilson, Third president 1839-1843: Holmes McGuffey, Fourth president 1845: University closes due to financial crisis. 1848-1852: Alfred Ryors, Fifth president 1852-1872: Solomon Howard, Sixth president 1872-1883: William Henry Scott, Seventh president 1884-1896: Charles William Super, Eighth president 1896-1898: Isaac Crook, Ninth president 1899-1901: Charles William Super, Eighth president (for another term) 1901-1920: Alston Ellis, Tenth president 1921-1934: Elmer Burritt Bryan, Eleventh president 1935-1943: Herman Gerlach James, Twelfth president 1943-1945: Walter Sylvester Gamertsfelder, Thirteenth president 1945-1961: John Calhoun Baker, Fourteenth president 1962-1969: Vernon R. Alden, Fifteenth president 1969-1974: Claude R. Sowle, Sixteenth president 1974-1975: Harry B. Crewson, Seventeenth president (interim) 1975-1994: Charles J. Ping, Eighteenth president 1994-2004: Robert Glidden, Nineteenth president 2004-present: Roderick McDavis, Twentieth president