Jeremy Bentham

The philosopher and political scientist Jeremy Bentham, famous for a variety of things (including as the father of utilitarianism), was fundamental in the founding of University College London as a sectarian alternative to Cambridge and Oxford, where membership in the Church of England was required for matriculation. So great was his love for the school that in his final will he asked that his body be preserved and placed in an autoicon to remain on campus.

So today if you walk through the South Cloisters, you see Mr. Bentham sitting in a big glass and wooden box. Everything is real aside from the head, as his actual head was damaged a number of years ago. There are stories that a group of students stole his head and used it to play soccer, but it was probably just damaged during a long-since-past relocation.

And here's an interesting fact (as if the presence of a dead man - dead since 1832 - wasn't interesting enough)... On a number of noteworthy milestones in the history of University College London, Jeremy Bentham has been wheeled in to meetings of the College Council, where he has been marked as "present but not voting."