George W . Atherton George Washington Atherton ( June 20 , 1837 – July 26 , 1906 ) was president of the Pennsylvania State University from 1882 until his death in 1906 . He earned a degree from Yale in 1863 and taught at universities such as the University of Illinois and Rutgers before accepting the position of president at Penn State . There , he was faced with the challenge of transforming the school from an unrecognized agricultural college into a respected land - grant college . During his tenure , the school ' s graduating class increased from seven in 1882 to 86 in 1906 . He is buried on the campus of Penn State , near Old Main , on Pollock Road which cuts directly through the campus . Biography . Atherton was born in 1837 in Massachusetts , and at the age of 12 , his father died . He worked on a farm and in a cotton mill to support his mother and fought on the Union side in the Civil War , reaching the rank of captain before being released for health problems . He graduated from Yale in 1863 , and then began his teaching career at The Albany Academy in Albany , New York . He became a faculty member at the University of Illinois , and later worked as a political science professor at Rutgers . While at Rutgers , he was initiated as an honorary member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity by the Rutgers Chapter . His 24 year tenure at Penn State began in 1882 . During the early 1900s , Atherton ' s health began to deteriorate , and he died on July 26 , 1906 . He was acclaimed as a visionary by Benjamin Gill , the dean of the School of Language and Literature , for seeing " from the first not the college that was , but the college that was to be " . While Penn State ' s reputation was still not outstanding , Atherton had succeeded in rescuing the school from negligence by the state government and converted it into an institution of technical education . He is buried next to Schwab Auditorium , near Old Main , on the main campus of Penn State in University Park , Pennsylvania . President of Penn State . Technical education . Atherton was elected unanimously by the board of trustees on June 22 , 1882 to be the seventh president of Penn State , then called the Pennsylvania State College . As he took the position , the government of Pennsylvania was skeptical of the institution and disinclined to grant it appropriations , in spite of the school ' s status as the state ' s only land - grant university . To improve the institution ' s image , Atherton supported a public relations campaign designed to accurately project the school ' s purpose . He argued that the college should become a school of technology , in keeping with the Morrill Land - Grant Colleges Act , as opposed to being dominated by agricultural and classical studies . This position was not held by Governor Robert E . Pattison , as he maintained that the school should not stray from its origins in agricultural education . Pattison ' s proposal to reorganize the college and make it exclusively agricultural was rejected by the board of trustees in 1884 , giving Atherton the chance to continue in his mission of providing a technical education at a low cost that would strengthen Pennsylvania ' s position as one of the country ' s leading industrial states . Atherton began by strengthening the university ' s engineering and mechanical arts programs , asking Louis E . Reber to survey similar programs at other institutions and make improvements to Penn State ' s curriculum . In 1887 , as a result of a significant increase in enrollment at the school , Atherton obtained the school ' s first appropriation in nearly a decade from the Pennsylvania general assembly for the construction of more buildings . Further funding in 1889 and 1891 reflected Atherton ' s success in improving the institution ' s image among the legislature and the general public . By 1893 , over two - thirds of the school ' s 181 students were studying engineering disciplines , while very few studied agriculture , a fact that Atherton attributed to the industrialization of Pennsylvania . By 1900 , the university ' s engineering program was ranked tenth in the country by number of students enrolled . Curricular changes . Atherton also did much to strengthen other areas of the curriculum , supporting improvement of the liberal arts education around the start of the 20th century . Programs in ancient languages and philosophy were created during those years , though few students took advantage of them . He supported the expansion of the library , which in 1899 benefited from a gift from Andrew Carnegie after the general assembly refused to provide the necessary funding . Atherton proposed a number of curricular changes , including the grouping of similar disciplines into seven colleges in 1895 . This allowed greater coordination between programs , and added deans as an additional level of authority between departments and the university president . He oversaw the development of several other less formal programs of study , such as short courses in technical and agricultural subjects , correspondence courses , and summer school . As a result of these reforms , enrollment in the school increased to 800 by the time of his death , with the majority of students studying in baccalaureate degree programs . This presented a financial strain on the school , since the size of appropriations was reduced due to government budgetary constraints . Student life under Atherton . Under Atherton , extracurricular activities among students expanded dramatically , and athletic programs began to take shape . In 1892 , Atherton hired a director of physical training and approved the construction of Beaver Field . During those years , a student news publication , " The Free Lance " , was founded , and the first yearbook was published . The Blue Band was organized in 1900 , and theatre and music groups were founded as well . Atherton maintained an atmosphere of discipline among the student body , requiring class attendance and the military training of all male students in the institution . Room inspections and artillery drills were common , as a result of provisions in the Morril land grant act . Even so , Atherton remained popular with the student body , as he was known for giving students a fair hearing . In 1888 he approved the foundation of the university ' s first fraternities , and made changes to the school schedule in accordance with student wishes .