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WLU To Mark Founders Day Tuesday

West Liberty University will celebrate its Founders Day on Tuesday, honoring the institution that has stood in West Liberty since before the state of West Virginia was born.

This year's celebration will be virtual, streamed on Topper Station (topperstation.com) on Tuesday. All students, faculty and staff will receive an email link and invitation to join the celebration that morning.

"Founders Day is a day to celebrate and recognize the long tradition of academic excellence here on the Hilltop," WLU President W. Franklin Evans said. "We are proud of our history and hope that everyone will take a moment to enjoy the virtual presentation planned to commemorate the day."

The university was founded in 1837 by the Virginia legislature as a private academy, first called West Liberty Academy. At that time, West Liberty was the county seat of Ohio County.

Considered the oldest public university in the state, its first class of 65 students met in the home of the Rev. Nathan Shotwell in 1838, the first principal of the new school.

Principals led the Academy till 1918, when John C. Shaw became the officially named first president. Evans is the institution's 37th president.

WLU has gone through various names over its lengthy history -- West Liberty Academy (1837-70), West Liberty Normal School (1870-1931), West Liberty State Teachers College (1931-43), West Liberty State College (1943-2009) and West Liberty University (2009-present).

The virtual celebration will include greetings from Evans, music from the WLU choirs, a reading by the West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman and others and comments from the editor of the Trumpet, the university's student newspaper. The event will conclude with a video from WLU's Office of Marketing and Brand Management.