1. The first president was from France. Eguishheim, near Colmar in Alsace, to be exact. That's where Father Leo Meyer, the first UD president, was born in 1800. He first got to the U.S. in 1849 and opened St. Mary's Institute (which eventually became UD) in 1850.
2. A building boom produced the largest building in Dayton. It came under Maximin Zehler, the third UD president (1860-1867). St. Mary's Hall, when completed in 1871, was Dayton's largest building.
3. The fourth UD president was the first to retire in style. Rev. Francis Feith (1876-1879) went to Hawaii after he left St. Mary's Institute as Chaplain to the Hawaiian Islands and died there in 1930.
>>> HISTORY EXTRA: University of Dayton presidents, 1850-1908
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