Solomon Pool (1832-1901), the son of Martha Gaskins and Solomon Pool, was born on his family's plantation near Elizabeth City, NC. He entered the University in 1849, became a member of the Philanthropic Society, and graduated with second honors in 1853. The following December he became a tutor of mathematics, receiving an MA degree in 1856 and a promotion to adjunct professor of mathematics in 1861. In 1866 he took a leave of absence to accept a $5,000 salary as US deputy appraiser, a job he continued to hold when he succeeded Gov. Swain as president of the University from 1869 to 1871. Denounced for his Republican political views, Pool was unable to raise University enrollments or pay off the institution's postwar debts. When the University closed on February 1, 1871, Pool became principal of an academy in Cary, NC. A convert to the Methodist Episcopal church, Pool was licensed to preach in 1856, was ordained as a deacon in 1862, and became an elder in 1865. In the later years of his life, he moved frequently, serving North Carolina congregations where he was needed. He married Cornelia Kirkland in 1856; the couple had six sons and two daughters (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 5:119-20).