By Sarah Bender, Icon intern
Located between the Dicke building of business and the Hill building, home to the social sciences, stands the statue of a man who founded Ohio Northern University and who helped to develop the town of Ada.
It is Dr. Henry Solomon Lehr.
The statue shows Lehr pondering, standing at the head of campus and facing the town. His nature and location epitomize Lehr’s nature as a progressive academic, interested in the needs of students.
Lehr, one of 11 children, grew up in Oldtown, Ohio, and worked as a farmhand while attending school in his spare time. Eventually, Lehr became a school teacher, understanding the importance of academia.
After being discharged from the Union Army, Lehr set out to create his own university in which he could apply his new academic philosophy.
Lehr arrived at the Ada Depot in March of 1866 at the age of 28. Finally, in August of 1871, he opened the Northwestern Ohio Normal School which had only 147 students enrolled.
Lehr’s institution was originally meant to train educators and to apply his teaching philosophy, which focused around the idea that students need flexible curriculum schedules in order to work while attaining their higher education and to make tuition affordable so more students could attend. To make this possible, the institution operated from five o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock at night.
In 1897, after the institution was renamed Ohio Northern University, Lehr sought to increase financial support by selling the university to the Methodist Church. This allowed ONU ongoing support and academic prosperity.
Lehr dedicated his life to teaching and supporting academic flexibility, now a common teaching approach among educational institutions, on order to give more people the opportunity to attain a higher education without having to give up their financial means.
Today Lehr’s statue continues to look over the university and the town of Ada, as if still overseeing how the institution adapts to its students’ lives.
