Henry Hanson was elected to the presidency of Gettysburg College from his ministry at Messiah Lutheran Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Roanoke College and the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg, he held numerous honorary degrees. He was highly regarded as a pastor and synodical leader before coming to Gettysburg. The longest-serving president in the history of the College (1923-1952), he secured Gettysburg’s national accreditation by the Association of American Universities.
Hanson has been hailed by many as the president who successfully steered Gettysburg College through the Great Depression, and as an enthusiastic leader who was especially interested in students’ welfare. Yet in the first decade of his tenure he was an outspoken advocate for a male-only institution before economic necessity led him to change course. “It is a deep conviction of my own that the next departure in modern education will be the endeavor to produce a higher type of manhood,” he told the board of trustees. Eventually, Gettysburg College became fully-coeducational in 1935, during Hanson’s tenure.
-Jean LeGros