Ralph Mershon, 1918

Ralph D. Mershon, namesake of Mershon Auditorium, is one of four OSU men who can take much of the credit for the establishment of the Reserve Officers Training Corps, or R.O.T.C., on the nation’s university campuses.

Ralph Davenport Mershon was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on July 14, 1868. He came to Ohio State in 1886 and graduated in 1890 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He began experimenting and consulting in the fields of electrical engineering, which would eventually gain him worldwide recognition for his inventions and his work with hydroelectricity, particularly at Victoria Falls in South Africa.

During World War I, Mershon served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but his greatest contribution to the military was his efforts to establish a civilian military training program for the nation’s universities. Before World War I, military training on campuses consisted mostly of drills and physical education; he advocated broadening the curriculum so students would be ready to serve as military officers once they graduated. Mershon was involved in a series of conferences on the matter, along with Brigadier Gen. Edward Orton, Jr. (son of former OSU President Edward Orton, Sr. and an OSU professor), Col. George L. Converse (at that time Commandant of Cadets at Ohio State), and William Oxley Thompson, then-OSU President.

ROTC students, 1943

These four men came up with what was known as the Ohio Plan for Reserve Officers. In 1916 the Ohio Plan was presented to Congress; that year, the National Defense Act was passed, and it included a provision for the establishment of the R.O.T.C.

Mershon died on Feb. 14, 1952. He left his $7.5 million estate to the University. An endowment fund was established, with half of the annual income to be used to promote military education. The funds are still used to support professorships, scholarships and seminars in the field of military education, and his bequest also led to the establishment of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State. The fund also paid for the construction of the Mershon Auditorium, which opened in 1957.

Mershon Auditorium, 1957

The University Archives has recently finished processing the Ralph D. Mershon Papers. If you’d like to take a look at its inventory, contact haire.14@osu.edu.