Meet some of the people who helped build the Cathedral of Learning — and their Pitt-connected descendants
The following first appeared in the Fall 2026 issue of Pitt Magazine as part of a collection of anecdotes, fun facts, figures and more — 42 of them in all, one for each of the Cathedral of Learning’s 42 floors. The issue celebrated the centennial of the Cathedral’s 1926 groundbreaking.
During his time as an undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh, Stephen Klauder (BUS ’22) always had two fun facts as icebreakers on the first day of class: He was a triplet and his great-great-great-uncle Charles Zeller Klauder was the architect behind Pitt's famed Cathedral of Learning.
Sometimes he would even deliver the news of his connection to the architect while sitting in a Cathedral classroom. Stephen’s siblings, Catherine Klauder (NURS ’22) and Ryan Klauder (BUS ’22) attended Pitt, too.
The trio, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, an hour north of their ancestor’s Philadelphia hometown, only learned of his architectural legacy during their senior year of high school while scouting colleges.
In the first half of the 20th century, Charles Klauder’s designs shaped the visual character of campuses across the United States.
[Read more about how Charles Klauder helped bring Chancellor John Bowman’s audacious idea to life.]
From Cornell University in New York to the University of Colorado at Boulder and on to Pitt’s Cathedral, Heinz Memorial Chapel and Stephen Foster Memorial, his legacy lives on in brick, stone and steel.
Born in Philadelphia in 1872, Klauder studied for a brief time at the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art.
Starting at age 15, he worked in several notable architecture firms, becoming a named partner in 1911.
Klauder’s Gothic approach garnered widespread recognition, including a gold medal from the American Institute of Architects and a grand prix and silver medal from the Pan-American Congress of Architects in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For the Klauder siblings, a familial connection to the University’s most iconic building made Pitt feel even more like home.
“Knowing we weren’t the first Klauders to be at Pitt was grounding,” says Ryan Klauder.
The art of coincidence
If you were to map Anita Kapp Herman’s life story, there’d be several dotted lines connecting her to the Cathedral of Learning. Herman (A&S ’49) was 8 years old in 1934, when her father, Harry Kapp, worked his last day as a carpenter on the Cathedral’s construction crew.
Herman credits her father with inspiring her love of drawing, a passion she took to Pitt, where she earned her art degree.
But there’s even more to the story: Herman met her husband, Dick (A&S ‘52), while tabling for her sorority in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning.
Though Herman didn’t work as a professional artist, she continues to draw today and often sends hand-drawn greeting cards to her 10 grandchildren.
She turned 100 in September, just 11 days before the Cathedral.
Happy birthday, Anita!