Class of 1897

Samuel Deinard was born on January 25, 1872 in Rossein, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire) to David Mendel and Taube Leah Deinard. Deinard spent some of his childhood in Palestine where he attended schools in Jerusalem. He also attended a normal school in Cologne, Germany where he prepared for entry into the University of Heidelberg. By 1894 he was in the United States where he enrolled first at the University of Pennsylvania and then, in 1895, entered the class of 1897 at Dickinson College. Leaving Dickinson after one year, he earned his bachelor's degree at De Pauw University in 1897, his M.A. in 1901 at the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1905.

While at Dickinson, Deinard was elected to membership in the Belles Lettres Society and quickly acquired the nickname "Rabbi." His class yearbook described him as "patriarchal" in appearance with a penchant for the phrase "like the Dickens" and noted that much of his spare time was taken up with writing love poetry. This last observation may have had a connection with his withdrawing from the College, since on May 20, 1896 he married Rose Deinard of Kearney, New Jersey. The couple had three children - Amos Spencer, Benedict Spinoza and Miriam Judith.

Edgar Rohrer Heckman was born on February 11, 1875 to Isaac and Annie T. Heckman, in Ennisville, Pennsylvania. He attended the Williamsport Dickinson Seminary and then enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the fall of 1894. He quickly became an active student. By 1896, he was the recording secretary of the Belles Lettres Literary Society and was selected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, focusing his academics in Latin and history. He was also a successful athlete -- as a junior he stood at 5' 11" and 185 pounds -- and played four years on the football team. He was captain of his class baseball team, and an enthusiastic gymnast. Nicknamed "Heck," he also became a member of the fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma.

Heckman received his A.B. in 1897 and took a post for three years as a teacher of Latin and history at the Dickinson Preparatory School. In 1900 he became the Methodist pastor at Town Hill, Pennsylvania. This heralded a series of appointments which included district superintendent of the Harrisburg area and minister to the Allison Church in Carlisle from 1929 to 1932 and the Pennsylvania State College. His last post before his retirement was at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Tyrone, Pennsylvania from 1937 to 1947. He received an honorary D.D. from Dickinson in 1917.