Class of 1900

Andrew Kerr IV was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming on October 7, 1878 the son of Andrew and Mary Elizabeth Kerr. His family moved east to Carlisle, Pennsylvania and the young Kerr attended most of his secondary schooling there. He entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1900 in 1896 and graduated in the Latin Scientific section with his class four years later. In the meantime, he had joined the Theta Nu Epsilon fraternity, been active in the Belles Lettres Society, and had been chosen senior class secretary. He had also played three years on the varsity baseball team and still holds the College record in the discontinued "standing high jump" field event at 4 feet 8 inches. Most ironically, as it concerns his future career, he felt himself at 135 pounds too light for football.

Immediately following graduation, Kerr eschewed a minor-league baseball contract and began teaching mathematics at the Rowe School in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The following year he moved to the Johnstown High School. His began his coaching in Johnstown and when he moved to the Pittsburgh area, he came to the attention of Glenn "Pop" Warner, then at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1914, Kerr left what had already been an extended career as a mathematics teacher and joined Warner's staff at Pitt. He was to coach football for the rest of his life, becoming one of the most influential college football coaches in history as he did so.

Boyd Lee Spahr was born on April 18, 1880, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. There he grew up in the first block of South Market Street; his father was a local merchant. Young Spahr attended Dickinson College's preparatory school in nearby Carlisle, and then matriculated in the College proper with the class of 1900. Charming and athletic, he played tennis and joined Phi Kappa Sigma and the Belles Lettres Society. He was editor of The Dickinsonian and through other activities came to earn the nickname “Yodeler.”

Upon graduation he taught history for a year at the Preparatory School and published a collection of stories, Dickinson Doings. He then enrolled at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, and he remained a Philadelphian the rest of his days.

Seemingly a figure from a Louis Auchincloss novel, Boyd Lee Spahr dominated Dickinson for much of the twentieth century. He served on the Board of Trustees from 1908 until his death in 1970; from 1931 to 1962 he was the Board’s president. Witty and urbane, he deftly governed the College, variously choosing and controlling trustees and presidents to shape Dickinson into an ideal he often declared, “to make Dickinson the best small liberal arts college.”

George S. Williams was born in Ocean View, Delaware on October 21, 1877 to W.S.H. and Catherine Williams. He was educated at local schools and at the Wilmington Conference Academy, now Wesley College. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1897 and enrolled in the classical course. He was an active student, with the nickname "Ducky," and he participated in varsity track and varsity football on the outstanding teams of 1898 and 1899. He was also elected to the Belles Lettres Society before he graduated with the class of 1900.

Williams began a teaching career in Toddville, Maryland after graduation and, in 1902, moved to Michigan, where he taught at Ironwood High School. He left education to become the superintendent of a lumbar plant in Stearns, Kansas in 1903 and then moved on in the same business to Delaware in 1905 until his business standing found him elected mayor of Millsboro, Delaware between 1921 and 1927. Williams then took on a series of Delaware state positions, including president of the state board of education 1927-1934, treasurer of Delaware 1929-1933, and deputy motor vehicle commissioner 1935-1937. He was active in Republican politics and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1939. He was not re-elected in November 1941 and returned to Delaware as the state motor vehicle commissioner 1941-1946. He last significant political role was as the administrative assistant to Delaware Senator John J. Williams between 1947 until 1959.

Albert Witwer, or "Wit", was born in Lancaster County on March 3, 1876. He attended the Dickinson Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and then the College proper. He received his B.A. in 1900 and his M.A. in 1905 from Dickinson. While at Dickinson, Witwer was a member of Sigma Chi, Belles Lettres Literary Society, and the track team. He was the manager in chief of the Dickinsonian, manager of the Microcosm, and a winner of the Pierson Prize Junior Oratorical Contest.

Upon graduation, Witwer became a member of the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Church, serving as pastor in a variety of parishes, including the Wharton Street Memorial Methodist Church in Philadelphia. He served as the superintendent of the North District of the Conference for six years. In 1932, Dickinson awarded him an honorary doctorate of divinity.

He served the American Expeditionary Forces in France as an administrator with the Y.M.C.A. in the First World War and after worked and studied in Grenoble. He married Emma Gorsuch in December 1900 and they had three sons, two of whom, Albert and Charles, attended Dickinson. His third son, Russell, pursued a naval career. Albert Witwer died on February 28th, 1950 at the age of 74.