Cupola Society

Samuel S. Schmucker was the chief founder of the Lutheran Theological Seminary and of Gettysburg College. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the theological seminary at Princeton. 
 
Schmucker lobbied the state legislature to create a college and drafted the charter that would convert the Gettysburg Gymnasium into a college for the education of youth in the learned languages, the arts, sciences , and useful literature. He named this institution Pennsylvania College.
 
The visionary leader served the College as professor of philosophy, lobbyist for the first state appropriation ($18,000), and charter trustee. During 41 years on the Board of Trustees, he missed only five meetings. In A Salutary Influence: Gettysburg College, 1832-1985, Charles H. Glatfelter writes, "For several decades after the seminary in Gettysburg was established in 1826, Samuel S. Schmucker was the most influential Lutheran in the United States."