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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE of the most ardent supporters of the College. Both men received votes from senior and junior members of the board as well as from pastors and laymen. Three of the four members of the second search committee who were present voted for Gies. After six ballots the trustees, concluding that neither of these candidates could then be elected, proceeded unanimously to choose Milton H. Valentine, 40, of the class of 1882, son of the former president of the College. The younger Valentine, who had received from one to three votes on the first six ballots, was a pastor who served parishes in Bedford and Philadelphia before becoming editor of the Lutheran Observer in 1899.82 Both the Gettysburgian and local newspapers had the highest praise for the board's choice, concluding that the newly elected president was indeed the man "to do the work required." However, three weeks after the election Valentine informed the board that, as he had earlier told the search committee, he could not see his way "clear to assume the position." The tone was decisive and convincing. Probably for a variety of reasons, only thirteen trustees attended the regular commencement meeting of the board on June 14, 1904. By comparison, there were about twice that many at the two special meetings. It was obvious that the delay in choosing a president was reflecting unfavorably upon the College and preventing much- needed forward movement. After dealing With the several kinds of business arising during annual meetings, the trustees discussed the presidency once again and then voted, in what must have been something of an act of desperation, six to five in favor of Samuel G. Hefelbower, Professor of German. After the presiding officer declared him legally elected, those present agreed to make the count a unanimous one. "The election of Samuel Gring Hefelbower to the Presidency of Pennsylvania College came yesterday afternoon with a complete surprise," declared the Compiler (June 15), "and probably as much so to the gentleman himself as to all others." Hefelbower later wrote that "I was elected, not having been consulted, directly or indirectly," in regard to the matter. Only after at least five influential trustees, as well as others, urged him to accept 62Both Stock and Gies took their candidacies quite seriously. The former entered in the board minute book, "for the information of any curious reader in after years," but "not part of the official record," the names and positions of the ten trustees who had supported him. He also recorded that two friends, who presumably would also have voted for him and given him the majority he needed, were kept away from the meeting, one by business and the other by sickness. Gies included in his biographical sketch which appeared for many years in Who's Who in America that he was the alumni choice for president of Gettysburg College in 1904. Failure to be elected did not lead either man to lessen his support of the College. 45