Class of 1898

C. Oscar Ford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 3, 1873, the son of John and Mary Eliza Ford. He entered the Dickinson Preparatory School and then the freshman class at the College, the class of 1898, in September, 1894. He was an active member of his class, being elected president in his first year and captaining the class baseball team all four years. He played all four years as a member of the varsity football team and was captain in 1896. He was also a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and was elected to membership in the Belle Lettres Society. He was president of the Athletic Association in his sophomore year and was a fine enough speaker to represent Dickinson at the Collegiate Oratorical Contest in Mt. Gretna.

Following graduation, he studied for the Methodist ministry at Boston College and was ordained in 1901. Along with long serving pastorates in Winthrop and Lynn, Massachusetts, he also gave sterling service to the New England Conference of the Methodist Church as a superintendent, member of the board for ministerial training, and delegate.

He married Florence Bartch of Columbia, Pennsylvania in 1901 and the couple had three daughters. C. Oscar Ford was serving in semi retirement as pastor of the Prospect Street Methodist Church in Gloucester, Massachusetts when he died of a heart attack on October 17, 1948, two weeks after his seventy-fifth birthday. He was buried at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gloucester.

Leon Prince was born on May 15, 1875 to Morris Watson and Katherine Farnham Buck Prince in Concord, New Hampshire. He attended Bordentown Military Academy and then enrolled in New York University in 1894. During his time at military school, Prince was struck with muscular dystrophy which would confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In 1896 his father became a professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Prince transferred to the school shortly after in 1897. While at Dickinson, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa honorary society and an officer in Belles Lettres Literary Society.

He graduated in 1898 and enrolled in the Dickinson School of Law. He graduated with a L.L.B. in 1900 and joined the Cumberland County Bar Association the same year. Also in 1900, Prince became an ordained clergyman of the New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and began a career as a librarian and instructor at Dickinson. Three years later he was promoted to the position of adjunct professor of history and economics. He held this position until 1910, when his father retired and Prince became a full professor of history and economics.