Entries drawn from the college history encyclopedia
James Culbertson was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 17, 1803, the son of prosperous Presbyterian farmer Samuel Culbertson and his wife. His parents died when he was young, and the neighboring farming family of Thomas Urie took him in. When twelve, Culbertson went to Hopewell Academy...
Birth: November 3, 1834; Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Death: January 20, 1899 (age 64); Emporia, Kansas
Military Service: USA, 1861-65
Unit: Company A, 129th Illinois Infantry
Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1857)
Joseph Franklin Culver was born in...
George David Cummins was born near Smyrna in Kent County, Delaware on December 11, 1822, the son of George and Maria Durburow Cummins. When the younger George was just 4 years old, his father died, leaving him to be raised by his mother and uncles. He received his early education in Newark,...
Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on April 28, 1867, Mary Curran prepared at Bloomsburg Normal School where her father, Hugh Asbury Curran, taught. In 1886 she entered Dickinson College as a junior, receiving the coveted Pierson Gold Medal for Oratory in the Spring of 1887. She graduated Phi...
Andrew Gregg Curtin was born April 22, 1817 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. He was the son of a Scots Irish immigrant who had begun an iron manufacturing concern in Center County and his second wife, Jean Gregg, daughter of a prominent Pennsylvania political family. He prepared at academies in...
John Dale was born in Philadelphia in 1919 and graduated from high school in Montclair, New Jersey where his father was president of a coal company. He entered the College in September 1936 with the class of 1940 but transferred to Amherst College after his freshman year. He was tapped as a...
William Daniel was born on remote Deal's Island in Somerset County, Maryland on January 24, 1826. He was educated locally and then matriculated at Dickinson with the class of 1848. While at the College he was a member of the Union Philosophical Society. Following graduation he studied law and...
Gerald "Jerry" Darr was born in 1917 in Burnside, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Cherry Tree High School and entered the College in the class of 1940. An outstanding athlete who later entered the College Sports Hall of Fame, he excelled on several teams. He was co-captain in football as a...
Robert Laurenson Dashiell was born June 25, 1825 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, graduating in July of 1846 as Salutatorian. Throughout his collegiate years at Dickinson, Dashiell was an active member of the Union Philosophical Society. Following...
Born March 22, 1927, William Davis graduated from Media High School in Media, Pennsylvania in 1945. He served two years with the Fifth Army Air Force before entering Dickinson College with the class of 1951 in September 1947. While at the College, he was a member of the varsity football team....
William Emory Fisk Deal was born on March 8, 1840 in Calvert County, Maryland to William Grove and Janetta Suttan Deal. He prepared for his undergraduate years at the West River Classical School and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1855 with the class of 1859. He was a...
Charles Force Deems was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 4, 1820, the son of George and Mary Roberts Deems. The family was very pious - his mother was the daughter of a Methodist minister - and from a young age Deems exhibited signs of his future calling, once preaching temperance in...
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...
Rae DeMatteis was born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he and his older brother, Michael DeMatteis, Class of 1942, attended Altoona High School. He spent a year and a half at Dickinson College, participating with his brother in varsity soccer before leaving in December, 1942 to train...
Charles Denison was born on January 23, 1838 in Kingston, Pennsylvania to a prominent Luzerne County family. His grandfather was second in command of American forces in the battle of Wyoming Valley, and his uncle, George Denison, served in Congress. Charles Denison was educated locally and then...
Harmar Denny was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 13, 1794, the eldest son of Nancy Wilkins and Ebenezer Denny. Nancy Wilkins was a sister to William Wilkins, who also attended Dickinson College and rose to the United States Cabinet under President John Tyler. Ebenezer Denny was a...
William Lewis Dewart was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania on June 21, 1821, the only son of Lewis and Elizabeth Ligett Dewart. His father was an influential railroad director and politician who had been speaker of the Pennsylvania house, congressman from Sunbury, an unsuccessful candidate for...
Oliver James Dickey was born on April 6, 1823 in Old Brighton, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where his father, John Dickey, was postmaster and later sheriff. The older Dickey also served in the State senate and was a Whig member of the U.S. Congress in two terms during the 1840s. The son began...
James Dieffenderfer was a native of Easton, Pennsylvania and graduated from Wilson High School in 1941. He entered Dickinson in the autumn of 1941 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942. He was a participant in the unprecedented accelerated degree program; when he enlisted he was...
Philip W. Downes was the eldest son of William H. Downes and his wife Annie Hardcastle Downes and was born in Caroline County, Maryland in 1837. When he was ten, his father was elected as a Maryland state delegate. The younger Downes entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he...
A native of Butler, Pennsylvania and a graduate of the class of 1961, Joe Doyle was a member of Phi Kappa Psi, the vice president of the Young Democrats, and took part in the Freshmen Plays. He was a Cadet First Lieutenant of Company D of the R.O.T.C. detachment.
Doyle became a regular...
Born in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Sumner Drayer studied at the Dickinson Preparatory School. He married Agnes Pettigrew on March 17, 1906. Among numerous business ventures, Drayer served as the president of the Voneiff-Drayer company, which operated the chain of Miss America Candy Stores....
Alfred du Pont was born on April 11, 1798 in France to Eleuthere and Sophie Dalmas du Pont. His father's career during the French Revolution as both moderate politician and printer fell into disfavor as the Revolution became increasingly radical. The du Pont family fled to the United States,...
Robert Duncan was born c1768, the son of Carlisle attorney Stephen Duncan. The elder Duncan was a founding trustee of both the Carlisle Grammar School and Dickinson College; Robert presumably attended the grammar school before enrolling in Dickinson College. As a member of the first graduating...
Birth: June 29, 1837; Upper Tract, Pendleton County, West Virginia
Death: December 3, 1861 (age 24); Allegheny Mountain
Military Service: CSA, 1861
Unit: 25th Infantry Regiment Virginia
Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1859)
Zebulon Dyer while...
