M. (Milton) Valentine

Born in Maryland in 1825, Milton Valentine studied at Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg, graduating in 1850, and then completed his theological training there in 1852. He entered the Lutheran ministry in the early 1850s and served congregations in Virginia and Pennsylvania before returning to Gettysburg.

Valentine became a professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary and, in 1868, was called to lead Pennsylvania College, serving as its third president until 1884. Gettysburg College credits his presidency with a long period of growth, including the construction of several important campus buildings, and notes that he was the first alumnus of the college to become its president.

He is best remembered as a prolific religious writer and theologian. His books include Natural Theology; or, Rational Theism, Theoretical Ethics, and the two-volume Christian Theology, works that reflect his years of teaching and his effort to present theology and ethics in a careful, accessible way. He died in 1906.