William Mann Irvine

Irvine attended Bedford public schools in his early years, before enrolling at Phillips Exeter Academy at age 15.

Irvine won the South East Club University Fellowship in Social Science, allowing for a year of postgraduate study.

[3] Irvine contemplated becoming a pastor but was persuaded to enter teaching after completing his own formal education.

As enrollment increased, Irvine expanded the campus from four acres to over 120, constructing numerous new buildings along the way.

Irvine engaged noted architect Ralph Adams Cram to design the building and spent decades overseeing its planning and construction.

Construction was completed in 1926, and the chapel was dedicated to Mercersburg alumni killed in World War I.

[12] The spire is a replica of that of University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford, and it contains a traditional carillon.

[19] In 1912, he visited Cuba for Christmas vacation as a guest of its former president, Domingo Méndez Capote, whose son attended Mercersburg.

His death was announced to the Mercersburg community by the playing of the academy hymn on the famed carillon in what is now the Irvine Memorial Chapel.