Charles William Super (1842-1939)

Charles William Super was born near Newport, Pennsylvania to Henry and Mary Diener Super on September 12, 1842. He was educated in local common schools and at the Juniata Valley normal school in Millerstown, before entering Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1863. At the College he was elected to the Union Philosophical Society and became a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fratenity. He graduated with his class in 1866. He was the older brother of Ovando Byron Super who later graduated from the College with the class of 1873.

Following graduation he taught in Markelville and then, when this institution failed, he went west to a teaching post in Canfield, Ohio. His teaching then carried him to Delaware and then back to Millerstown, Pennsylvania where he served under his old preparatory school teacher. Desiring a broader education, he left for Europe in 1869 and studied at the University of Tubingen in Germany. He returned in 1871 to enroll in the doctoral program at Illinois Wesleyan and earned his degree there in 1874. He quickly gained a post at Wesleyan College in Cincinnati, Ohio teaching modern languages. After six years in Cincinnati and after a minor flirtation with law studies in 1879, he moved on to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio in 1882 as professor of Greek. The following year he became acting president at Ohio and then was named permanently to the position. He served in all from 1884 to 1901, in two stints broken by the unsuccessful two year presidency of Isaac Crook between 1896 and 1898. Super returned to teaching Greek in 1901 and retired finallyfrom Ohio in 1907. He remained in Athens and in his retirement added to the impressive list of books he had published during his career. He also saw Super Hall dedicated in his honor at Ohio University in 1926.

In December 1867 Super had married Mary Louise Cewell of Canfield, Ohio and the couple had four children. He lived to become Dickinson College's oldest surviving alumnus and died on October 9, 1939 in Athens. Charles William Super was ninety-seven years old.