Ursinus College history

In 1870, instruction began at the college in September; on October 4, the Zwinglian Literary Society was founded.

The Class of 1873, the college’s first graduating class, had only five members.

When it closed in 1880, Ursinus admitted Minerva Weinberger, the daughter of Prof.

Minerva Weinberger graduated valedictorian of her class in 1884.

A separate literary society for women, The Olevian, was formed in 1885.

The interior of Bomberger Hall.In 1891, the College’s signature building, constructed of Pennsylvania blue marble in Romanesque style, was dedicated and named for John H. A. Bomberger, who had died only the previous year.

Before his death in 1893, he gave more than $50,000 for the building of Bomberger Hall.

The town of Freeland officially incorporated as the Borough of Collegeville in 1896.

The Ruby, Ursinus' yearbook, was first published by the Class of 1897.

In 1910, with 135 students in the college and 96 in the academy, the trustees voted to close the academy to make room for the anticipated growth of the college.

In 1921, the first aerial photograph of Ursinus was taken, by future college president D.L. Helfferich, and was published in the 1921 Ruby.

In 1938, Jerome D. Salinger, described as gallant and charming, came from New York City and lived in Ursinus’s Curtis Hall.

With the advent of World War II, Ursinus saw the numbers of its male students dwindle, losing half of them in 1942.

In 1988, the F.W. Olin Foundation awarded a $5.37 million grant to Ursinus to construct a humanities building.

The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art opened on campus in 1989.

In 1990, Phi Beta Kappa invited Ursinus into its elite ranks.

Phi Beta Kappa invited Ursinus into its ranks in 1992.

The creation in 1993 of the Centennial Conference put Ursinus in the ranks of its neighboring elite colleges, competing on field and court against Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr.

In 1995, the college appointed Doctor John Strassburger as its 12th president, the first president from outside the Ursinus alumni group.

In 2006, the college attempted to capitalise on J. D. Salinger's brief time there by establishing a "J. D. Salinger Scholarship" which would allow a freshman to study creative writing and live in Salinger's dorm room for a year.

Doctor Bobby Fong, a graduate of Harvard and UCLA and former president of Butler University, began his tenure as the 13th president of Ursinus on July 1, 2011.

Doctor Fong died suddenly of natural causes at his home in Collegeville in 2014.

Brock Blomberg, Dean of the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna College, was named 17th president of Ursinus in 2015.