The Presidents' Gallery includes a 6-foot tall display for each of the college's 19 past presidents. The unveiling of the exhibit last Friday coincides with year-long festivities honoring DeVore, according to Otterbein's executive director of marketing and communication, Jennifer Pearce.

"The celebration committee has been doing various things to celebrate (DeVore's tenure) throughout the year, including a gala dinner, renaming one of our residence halls and a farewell reception last week," Pearce said. "The biggest thing we thought we could do would be to leave a legacy like this for our presidents, which hasn't happened before."

The gallery, located on the second floor of Towers Hall, 1 S. Grove St., features a contemporary design that retains the traditional arched windows and doorways of Towers Hall, the oldest and most recognizable building on campus, according to Pearce.

Each Otterbein president is represented by a 6-foot, window-shaped plaque that includes his photograph and biography. The 19 plaques hang on the walls of the curved hallway, and the exhibit is flanked by two restored stained glass windows, each 12 feet tall, that were originally a part of Towers Hall.

Otterbein board of trustees chairman Tom Morrison said the exhibit was paid for by donations from the college's board of trustees and an Otterbein alumna, and cost about $42,500. The plaques were designed and crafted by Aurora Exhibits Solutions, specifically by Steve Burkhart, an Otterbein class of '88 graduate, Morrison said.

This is the first time in Otterbein history that all presidents have been featured in one location, according to Pearce.

DeVore said the display will be a good spot for students and the community at large to learn more about the college's past leadership.

"In the past, there were maybe a few portraits of former presidents on the wall in the library, and maybe one in 300 passersby noticed them," he said. "This provides an opportunity to show the connections that have been made in the college since 1847."

Pearce said the celebration committee has been working on the exhibit for about a year.

"It was a real labor of love," she said. "We spent hours walking around the halls in Towers Hall looking at architectural elements, and saw the stained glass and came upon the idea of the window element of the display.

"We were then able to get some of the original glass out of the attic, which Franklin Glass put together for what you'll see in Towers Hall."

Pearce said Otterbein eventually plans to have the entire display on the college's Web site, www.otterbein.edu, including detailed biographic information on each of the college's former presidents.

Devore retires at the end of this month, following a 25-year career as Otterbein's president. He will be succeeded in July by Otterbein's first female president, Dr. Kathy A. Krendl.

Krendl takes over the top spot after serving as executive vice president of Ohio University, and was formerly the dean of the university's Scripps College of Communication.