Evan Pugh
Penn State’s first president (1859-64) was a national advocate of adding science, agriculture, and engineering to traditional collegiate studies. Penn State emerged as one of three agricultural colleges in the U.S. before the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant College Act—which promoted these new subjects and for which Pugh lobbied hard. Because of him, Penn State was named Pennsylvania’s sole land-grant college in 1863.