John Hamilton was one of the most influential leaders in the early history of Penn State and State College. He served in numerous roles with the new college, was a member of the borough council, and built a home that started the Highlands Historic District.
Sibyl Barsky Grucci was an acclaimed artist and sculptor, best known locally for the bust of Penn State author and professor Fred Lewis Pattee. She and her husband bought and renovated the historic Boogersburg School, which she used as a studio.
William Fisher Packer, a native of Howard Township, served as governor of Pennsylvania during the turbulent years before the Civil War. He also served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, representing Centre County and nearby counties.
William Jeffrey, who learned soccer as a boy in Scotland, coached the Penn State men’s soccer team for twenty-seven years and won ten national championships. Jeffrey Field, home of the men’s and women’s soccer teams, is named for him.
Alice Fuchs was a distinguished aviator who became the first female instructor of cadets at the Air Force Academy. The Penn State graduate trained countless new pilots and was a well-known author on aviation subjects.
Dr. Edith Schad was a pioneering Bellefonte physician who was the first woman elected to serve as president of the Centre County Medical Society. She also was a leader in moral reform movements locally and across Pennsylvania.
Andrew Gregg was an early landowner in Penns Valley who became an important politician, representing the middle portion of the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and Pennsylvania as a United States senator.
James Irvin was the ironmaster of Centre Furnace and the benefactor whose gift of 200 acres led to the establishment in Centre County of the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, the future Penn State University.
Fred Lewis Pattee was an author, literary scholar, and English professor at Penn State. He wrote the alma mater and made numerous other contributions to the college. The Pattee Library is named for him.
Robert Cole was a self-trained architect who designed some of Bellefonte’s best-known buildings, as well as churches, homes and other structures in Centre County.
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