List of Presidents of Ohio State University
This List of Presidents of Ohio State University includes all who have served as university presidents of Ohio State University since its founding in 1870. Ohio State University is a public research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870, as a land-grant university and ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862, the university was originally known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1878, in light of its expanded focus, the college permanently changed its name to The Ohio State University.
Capital University
Capital University was founded on June 3, 1830, as the "Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio" in nearby Canton, Ohio, 40 years before what would become The Ohio State University, securing its title as the oldest university in Central Ohio. It was renamed as Capital University on March 2, 1850, when the seminary was reformed as the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary of Columbus, Ohio, (ELTS), (and occasionally still known by the misnomer of "Capital Seminary") when the denomination was renamed as the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States and grew into a nationwide church body. In 1930, the Joint Synod was merged with two other smaller German language groups, the Iowa Synod (formed 1854) and the Buffalo Synod (founded 1845) into a major nationwide grouping entitled the American Lutheran Church (ALC), headquartered in Columbus. The ALC existed only three decades, until 1960, when it in turn participated in a larger merger with several other groups of Lutherans in the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish traditions and was renamed The American Lutheran Church. The second ALC lasted until the formation of the current Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1988, with offices in Chicago, Illinois.