Roscoe Osmond Bonisteel (1888-1972)

Roscoe Bonisteel was born in Canada on December 23, 1888 to Milton Fremont and Francis Whyte Bonisteel in Sidney Crossing, Ontario. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1908 as a member of the class of 1912. Before graduating, Bonisteel transferred to the University of Michigan where he received his law degree in 1912.

On September 12, 1914, he married Lillian Coleman Randoph. After serving as a Captain in the United States Army Air Service during the First World War, Bonisteel moved with his young wife to Ann Arbor, Michigan. There he began his career as a lawyer, serving as city attorney from 1921 to 1928. In addition to his professional commitments, Bonisteel served as a trustee for Wayne State University and as a regent for the University of Michigan. He supported the Historical Society of Michigan, serving as a trustee for a number of years.

In 1952, Dickinson College awarded Bonisteel an honorary doctor of laws degree. Seven years later, he was elected to the Board of Trustees. During his years of service to the college, Bonisteel donated funds for a planetarium and observatory, and supported the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections. Roscoe Osmond Bonisteel died on February 25, 1972.

College Relationship
Alumnus/Alumna Class Year
Honorary Degree - Year
1952
Trustee - Years of Service
1959-1972

Earl Eugene Rahn (c.1892-1918)

From Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, Earl Rahn entered the Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1909. He began his academic life in the Scientific course but then changed to the Philosophical course. He participated in activities ranging from the track team to the debate team, and from drama to Glee Club. He wrote for the Dickinsonian and had a poem entitled "Fate" published in the 1915 Microcosm. In the most cruel of ironies, this poem deals with the possibility of early death. Rahn graduated with a bachelor of philosophy degree with his class of 1912.

At the outbreak of war, Rahn enlisted and took his officer training at Fort Oglethorpe, Tennessee before moving on to his unit at Columbia, South Carolina. His regiment was in France by mid-1918 and he was "struck down in youth" at Bois de Lar Rapp on October 18, 1918.

College Relationship
Alumnus/Alumna Class Year

Simon Walter Stauffer (1888-1975)

(Simon) Walter Stauffer was born in Walkersville, Maryland on August 1888 the son of John Hanson and Ellen Nelson Stauffer. He attended area public schools, then Conway Hall Preparatory School in 1906 and 1907, and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He became a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and graduated with the class of 1912.

After a time in Maryland as an insurance agent, he moved to York, Pennsylvania and began a career as an executive in the manufacture of lime and crushed stone. He, in fact, became president of the National Lime Association between 1936 and 1946. He was involved also in other concerns in banking, timber, and utilities. He was vice president and chairman of the executive committee of the York County Gas Company from 1950 to 1960, and a director of the Columbia Water Company. He was elected to the Eighty-third United States Congress in late 1952 as a Republican. He lost his next election in 1954 but regained his seat in the Eighty-fifth Congress in 1956, only to fail again in re-election in 1958.

College Relationship
Alumnus/Alumna Class Year
Trustee - Years of Service
1930-1975

Glenn E. Todd (1890-1973)

Glenn E. Todd was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on January 12, 1890 to Robert R. and Phoebe Routzahn Todd. A life-long resident of Carlisle, he attended Carlisle High School, graduating in 1908, and then enrolled at the local Dickinson College. Todd graduated from Dickinson in 1912, but not before becoming an active member of Sigma Chi. He then entered the family business, the Todd Carpet Manufacturing Company, where he would later become co-owner with his brother. During World War I, Todd served as a corporal in the infantry, and on December 24, 1918, he was honorably discharged.

Returning to Carlisle after the War, he became a successful businessman at Todd Carpet and a well known member of the community. In addition to co-owning the carpet business, he became a partner in the Philadelphia Clay Company and the vice-president of the Board of Directors at the Farmers Trust Company. He was also a member of the boards of the Carlisle Hospital, the Mercersburg Academy, and the Homewood Church Homes; president of both the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce and the Carlisle Rotary Club, and a Carlisle Borough council member for fifteen years. Throughout his life, Todd remained involved in Sigma Chi as well, serving as president of the Harrisburg Area Alumni Chapter and treasurer of the Omicron Chapter before being elected to the organization's highest honor, the Order of Constantine.

College Relationship
Alumnus/Alumna Class Year
Trustee - Years of Service
1950-1973