Class of 1874

On December 22, 1851, William Lambert Gooding was born to William and Lydia A. Gooding on the family farm in Galena, Maryland. When he was nineteen years old William Lambert’s father died, and it was discovered the elder Gooding had purchased a subscription for his son to study at Dickinson College. Receiving his bachelor of arts degree from Dickinson in 1874, Gooding wanted to go on to medical school. However, he needed money to pursue those studies. His solution was to accept a teaching position at the Wilmington Conference Academy, Delaware. After a short time, Gooding went on to study at Harvard University. He then continued his studies in Germany for three years at universities in Göttingen, Leipzig and Heidelberg, but poor health forced him to come back to the United States in 1881 without having completed his degree. In recognition of his scholarship, Gooding was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Dickinson College in 1887.

Once back in the United States, Gooding accepted a one-year teaching position at Wesleyan University. The following year, 1882, he was again employed by the Wilmington Conference Academy, this time as the school's principal. Having returned to Delaware, on October 6, 1882 he married Kathleen Moore, one of his students during his earlier tenure at the academy. He continued as principal of the academy until 1898.

Robert Blaine Weaver was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1850 to John H. and Lacey Davidson McCord Weaver. He attended the local Dickinson Preparatory School, before entering the College proper in 1870. Weaver joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity at Dickinson and graduated from the College in 1874.

He went on to become a businessman in Carlisle. Throughout his life, he was an active member of the Union Philosophical Society and the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. In his later years, he resided with his sister, Laura Davidson Weaver, at 127 North Hanover St., the house in which the two were born.

On August 12, 1927, Weaver died, bequeathing his entire estate, valued at approximately $65,000, to his sister, with the money to be directed to Dickinson upon her death. On July 15, 1932, Laura Davidson Weaver died, leaving $35,296 and the property on North Hanover St., appraised at $7000, to the College. With this gift, the Robert Blaine Weaver Chair of Political Science was established in 1950.