Honorary Degree

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.

A. Lee Fritschler was born on May 5, 1937 in Schenectady, New York. He graduated in 1959 from Union College with degrees in economics and political science. Following his graduation, he studied at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, receiving an M.P.A. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in public administration and political science five years later. Following the award of his doctorate, Fritschler became a professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and remained there for fifteen years. While at American, he was the director of the public administration program from 1971 until 1972, the dean of the School of Governmental and Public Administration from 1973 to 1977, and finally the dean of the College of Public and International Affairs. In July 1979, President Carter appointed Fritschler to the chair of the United States Postal Rate Commission. In September 1981, he became the head director at the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Policy Education.

Francis Dunlap Gamewell was born in Camden, South Carolina on August 31, 1857 to John and Sarah Gamewell. The family moved to New Jersey during the Civil War, and young Gamewell was prepared for college at the academy in Hackensack. He then attended college at both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University before choosing Dickinson College for its Methodist affiliation. He entered in 1877 and earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1881. As a student he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity as well as the Union Philosophical Society.

Otis Gibson was born in Moira, New York in 1825. In September 1850, he entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1854. A big man, while at the College he was elected to the Belles Lettres Society and fell under the influence of Professor Erastus Wentworth, a devout Methodist and chair of Natural Philosophy. Following his graduation with his class in July 1854 he determined to accompany Wentworth on the mission to China he was leading. Gibson, after preaching in Carlisle for the last time two weeks before, sailed for Foochow in China on April 3, 1855.

On December 22, 1851, William Lambert Gooding was born to William and Lydia A. Gooding on the family farm in Galena, Maryland. When he was nineteen years old William Lambert’s father died, and it was discovered the elder Gooding had purchased a subscription for his son to study at Dickinson College. Receiving his bachelor of arts degree from Dickinson in 1874, Gooding wanted to go on to medical school. However, he needed money to pursue those studies. His solution was to accept a teaching position at the Wilmington Conference Academy, Delaware. After a short time, Gooding went on to study at Harvard University. He then continued his studies in Germany for three years at universities in Göttingen, Leipzig and Heidelberg, but poor health forced him to come back to the United States in 1881 without having completed his degree. In recognition of his scholarship, Gooding was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Dickinson College in 1887.

Once back in the United States, Gooding accepted a one-year teaching position at Wesleyan University. The following year, 1882, he was again employed by the Wilmington Conference Academy, this time as the school's principal. Having returned to Delaware, on October 6, 1882 he married Kathleen Moore, one of his students during his earlier tenure at the academy. He continued as principal of the academy until 1898.

John Goucher was born on June 7, 1845 in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania to Dr. John and Eleanor Townsend Goucher. He was raised in Pittsburgh, and attended local schools before entering Dickinson College. While at Dickinson, Goucher was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He attained his bachelor’s degree in 1868.

After graduation, Goucher turned down several opportunities to enter the business world, opting instead to pursue a career in the ministry. He served as a circuit preacher for the Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore Conference, before receiving his own church in Baltimore. Goucher married Mary Cecilia Fisher on December 24, 1877. They divided their time between the Baltimore Conference and traveling the world to establish missionary schools in China, Japan, Korea, and India.

In 1888, Goucher provided generous financial support for the establishment of a Women’s College in Baltimore. From 1890 to 1908, he served as the second president of that college. When the trustees of the college reorganized in 1910, they chose to name the institution Goucher College. John Franklin Goucher died on July 19, 1922 at Pikesville, Maryland.

James H. Graham was born in West Pennsborough Township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania on September 10, 1807. His father was Isaiah Graham, who served two terms in the state senate and became an associate judge, serving from 1817 to 1835, when he died. The younger Graham attended Gettysburg Academy under David McConaughy and then entered the junior class at Dickinson College. He graduated with honors in the class of 1827 and took on the study of law with Andrew Carothers in Carlisle. He was admitted to the bar in November 1829 and began his practice in the town.

Graham soon built a solid reputation and Governor Porter appointed him as state district attorney in 1839. He served for six years before declining a reappointment. In 1851 he widened his interests when he began a twenty year tenure as the president of the Carlisle Deposit Bank. The same year he was elected at the president judge of the tri-county Ninth District of Pennsylvania and was elected once again in 1862. The following year his alma mater awarded him both an honorary doctorate and appointment as professor of law. He headed the Dickinson College law department from 1862 to 1882. He served also for many years president of the board of trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle.

John Perdue Gray was born at Half Moon, in Centre County, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1825 the son of a Methodist minister. He was schooled at the Bellefonte Academy and entered Dickinson College in 1842. While at the College he was a member of the Union Philosophical Society. Upon graduation with the Class of 1846 he studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and by 1848 had earned his M.D.

Edwin Forrest Hann was born on December 5, 1876 in Fairton, New Jersey, the son of John S. and Edith R. Hann. He prepared for college at the Pennington Seminary in New Jersey and originally entered Wesleyan University. By 1898 he was a member of the Dickinson class of 1901 and an active student in class and out. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, a valuable member of the Union Philosophical Society, serving as clerk of the society, and four year member of the campus YMCA. He graduated in 1901 with the Latin Scientific Section.

His sporting career at the College was outstanding. He was a three year letterman in football, captaining the 1899 team from his quarterback position. Fraternity feuding made for a difficult season that year but Hann was an able leader, running a kick-off back 90 yards in a 51-0 rout of Franklin and Marshall. Hann also played varsity baseball.

Daniel Hartman Hastings was born near Lamar Township in Clinton County, Pennsylvania on February 26, 1849, the youngest of nine children of Scottish and Scots Irish immigrant parents. William Hastings and Sarah Hartman ran a struggling farm and were only able to send their son to a nearby select school. Their son took full advantage in a remarkable intellectual rise from fourteen year old assistant teacher, to eighteen year old principal of the local high school. At the same time, he studied Latin and Greek at the nearby Bellefonte Academy, served as an assistant editor of education with the local Bellefonte National, and also studied law. He had risen to superintendent of schools in Bellefonte before, in 1875, he passed the Centre County bar and began a full time practice of law.

John Hays was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on February 2, 1837 the youngest of two sons and a daughter of John and Eleanor Blaine Hays. On both sides of his family, the young John Hays was descended from old and highly respected central Pennsylvania stock. He was educated in the common schools of Carlisle and at the Plainfield Academy and entered Dickinson College in 1852. After a time away from his studies, he re-entered the College in 1854 and joined the class of 1857. He was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma and was elected to the Belle Lettres Society. Following graduation with his class, he entered law studies in Carlisle with Robert Henderson.

He was called to the Cumberland County bar in August 1859 and entered practice locally. In August 1862, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and then first lieutenant in the newly raised Company A of the 130th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. The 130th was one of the undrilled and untrained new regiments thrown into the action that culminated in the battle of Antietam. The unit later fought with heavy losses in the classes at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville where Hays, now adjutant of the regiment, was wounded in the right shoulder by a musket ball. He also served as adjutant to General William Hays for a time at brigade headquarters of the 2nd Brigade of the Third Division. He mustered out with his regiment on May 21, 1863 and returned to Carlisle, entering Henderson's law firm.

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.

Birth: March 11, 1827; North Middleton, Pennsylvania

Death: January 26, 1906 (age 78); Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Military Service: USA, 1861-65

Unit: Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry "Carlisle Fencibles"

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1845)

Robert Miller Henderson was born in North Middleton near Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 11, 1827 to William Miller and Elizabeth Parker Henderson. He was prepared at Carlisle High School and entered Dickinson College in 1841. He was an active member of the Belles Lettres Society and graduated with the class of 1845. He studied law with Judge Reed and was admitted to the Carlisle bar on August 25, 1847 though only twenty years old. He served two terms between 1851 and 1853 as an equally youthful Whig state legislator in the Pennsylvania house of representatives.

William Uhler Hensel was born in Quarryville in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1851. He was one of the five sons and nine children of George Washington Hensel, a prominent and wealthy businessman and his wife Ann Maria Uhler Hensel. He was educated first in local public schools and then attended several private academies in the area before entering the local Franklin and Marshall College's preparatory school. He enrolled at Franklin and Marshall as an undergraduate in 1866 and graduated in 1870 at the head of his class. He immediately began the study of law under Judge Isaac Hiester and then David G. Eshleman, an 1840 Dickinson graduate. He was admitted to the Lancaster bar in January, 1873 and opened a practice in the city.

Samuel Dickinson Hillman was born to Samuel and Susan Dickinson Hillman of Blackwood, New Jersey, on January 18, 1825. Not much is known of his life before he entered the Dickinson College Grammar School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1845. A member of the Belles Lettres Literary Society, Hillman graduated from the College in 1850, and received his master's degree two years later. While working towards this degree, he taught in West Chester, Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1851. Hillman was then appointed principal of the Grammar School, an office he would occupy for nine years.

In 1860, Hillman was selected by the College to serve as professor of mathematics and astronomy. Two years later he became the treasurer for the Board of Trustees, and he would remain so until 1868. By April 1868, Hillman was residing in West College as the senior faculty member; however, President Herman Merrills Johnson died suddenly at that time, and Hillman was selected to serve as president pro tempore due to his seniority.

Like William Henry Allen before him, Hillman was a temporary replacement not to be considered a candidate for the presidency. When a special trustee meeting of September 8, 1868 selected Robert L. Dashiell as president, Hillman returned to his position as professor. He would remain with the College for another six years.

Charles Francis Himes was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on June 2, 1838 to William D. and Magdalen Lanius Himes. He attended the New Oxford Collegiate and Medical Institute in Adams County, Pennsylvania, before entering Dickinson College in the spring of 1853 as a sophomore. He was a founding member of the College's Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. After graduating in 1855, Himes taught mathematics and natural sciences at the Wyoming Conference Academy in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. A year later he moved to the Midwest to teach at public schools in Missouri and Illinois, but shortly thereafter returned to the east to accept a position at the Baltimore Female College.

In 1860, he was appointed professor of mathematics at Troy University in Troy, New York, teaching there for three years. Himes enrolled at the University of Giessen in the Hesse region of Germany in 1863, earning his Ph.D. after two years of study. Upon his return to the United States, he was named professor of natural science at Dickinson College, a position which he would hold for three decades.

John Fletcher Hurst was born near Salem, Maryland on August 17, 1834, the only son and second child of Elijah and Ann Catherine Colston Hurst. His father was a relatively prosperous slave holding farmer and local magistrate who was active in the Methodist Church. His mother died at thirty-four in 1841, when John was seven years old. He was educated at home, then at the local common school and the nearby Cambridge Academy. He saw President Jesse Peck of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania preach near his home and was invited to attend the College in the fall. He did so, entering in September 1850 with the thirty-six member class of 1854. He became a member of the Union Philosophical Society almost immediately and, though not a great orator, later served in most of its executive offices. Already a serious and devout young man, "Johnnie Hurst" was already publishing small writings in various religious magazines before the end of his freshman year, and soon gained a reputation for gentle dignity and hard work. He graduated with twenty others of his class, not with honors but in the "First Section."

Frank Royer Keefer was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1865 to a Presbyterian and military family. His father was Major John D. Keefer and his mother Caroline Royer Keefer; he could also boast a great-grandfather who fought with the Continental Army. He was educated at the Whitman Seminary in Walla Walla, Washington, where his father was stationed, and then at the Dickinson Preparatory School. He entered the College in 1881 and graduated with his class in 1885. While at the College, he was a member of the Union Philosophical Society.

Nathaniel Garland Keirle was born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 10, 1833. He was the eldest child of three born to Matthew M. Keirle and Sarah Jacobs Garland Keirle. He was raised by his grandmother, as his father died of typhoid and his mother of tuberculosis before his seventh birthday. Keirle attended St. Mary's Seminary in the city, Public School # 6, and City High School. He then enrolled at the Dickinson College Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a year. Keirle entered the College proper in 1851. He was elected to the Union Philosophical Society and graduated second in his class in the early summer of 1855. He returned to Baltimore and, because he had wanted to become a lawyer, rather reluctantly entered medical studies. He earned an M.D. in 1858.

Born on February 21, 1880 in Somerton, Pennsylvania, George Henry Ketterer attended Dickinson Preparatory School before enrolling in the College in 1904. After graduating from Dickinson with a B.A. degree in 1908, he attended Drew Theological Seminary, where he received a M.A. degree in 1912. Following graduation, he served as a pastor for various churches in Newark, Philadelphia, and throughout Central Pennsylvania, finally settling in Warrior's Mark, Pennsylvania. It was here that Ketterer met Bertha Hutchison Curry, and on November 15, 1916, the two were married.

When the United States became involved in World War I in 1917, Ketterer enrolled in Chaplain's School at Camp Taylor, Kentucky. Upon graduation, he was transferred to Camp Meade, Maryland for active duty and served as a First Lieutenant and Chaplain. After the War, he returned to his work as a pastor, an occupation he continued until 1935. From 1935 until 1940, he served as superintendent of the Altoona School District.

Birth: December 22, 1837; Portland, Maine

Death: November 15, 1918 (age 81);Brooklyn, New York

Military Service: USA, 1861-65

Unit: Army of the Potomac, First Cavalry Division of the Army of the Shenandoah

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1858); Trustee, 1896-1918

John Krebs was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on May 6, 1804, the son of William and Ann Adamson Krebs. The senior Krebs was a merchant and postmaster in the town and John received his early education there before he went to work as a clerk in his father's post office. His father died in 1822 and soon after he became determined to join the Presbyterian Church. After instruction at the local academy, he entered Dickinson College in February 1825. Krebs graduated in the class of 1827 with high honors and commenced pastoral studies under the Rev. George Duffield of Carlisle. He also received an appointment at the Dickinson Preparatory School and taught there between 1827 and 1829. By 1829 he had been licensed to preach in the Carlisle Presbytery, but, in May 1830, he briefly entered Princeton Theological Seminary. As soon as November, 1830, he had been formally ordained and taken up a post as pastor of the Rutgers Street Church in New York City.

J. Banks Kurtz was born in Delaware Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1867 as the son of Abraham Hertzler and Molly Bergey Kurtz. He attended local schools and prepared for college at the Airy View Academy in Port Royal and entered Dickinson College with the class of 1893 in the fall of 1889. After two years as an undergraduate, he transferred to the Law School program and graduated with a B.LL degree in 1893. While at the college he was an enthusiastic member of the Union Philosophical Society and joined the Phi Delta Theta and Delta Chi fraternities. He also represented the Law Program on the board of the Dickinsonian.

He was called to the bar in Blair County, Pennsylvania and began practice in Altoona. By 1905 he was district attorney of the county and served as chairman of the committee of public safety and the national defense for Blair County during the First World War. A Republican, he was elected to the United States Congress in November 1922 and served for six consecutive terms until he, like many of his fellow Republicans, was defeated in the 1934 election. He returned to Altoona to practice law and later took up the post of city solicitor. He remained active in party politics and was a delegate to the national conventions of 1936, 1938, and 1948.

Marion Dexter Learned was born on July 10, 1857, near Dover, Delaware, the son of Hervey and Mary Learned. Learned's family was of early English and Welsh colonial background. He prepared for college at the Wilmington Conference Academy, and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a member of the class of 1880. While studying languages at the College, he was a member of the Belles Lettres Literary Society.

Henry Logan was born on June 22, 1889 in Carrol Township, York County, Pennsylvania to John N. and Ella Mae Coover Logan. He attended York High School, graduating in 1906, and then entered Dickinson College. At Dickinson, he became involved in the Theta Chi fraternity. In 1910, he received a B.A. degree from the College, which he followed with a M.A. degree in 1912. After receiving his first degree from Dickinson, he embarked on a teaching career, but abandoned it after just six years to pursue law instead.