Born in 1935, George Allan was educated at Grinnell College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1957. He went on to earn his master's degree in systematic theology at the Union Theological Seminary and was then awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy at Yale.

Allan joined the Dickinson faculty as an instructor in philosophy and religion in 1963. In 1974, he was appointed dean of the college, a post he held for more than twenty years. In December 1986, President Samuel Alston Banks resigned from his position at Dickinson to accept the presidency of Richmond University. Allan subsequently took on the duties of acting president of the college. Making it very clear that he had no interest in the presidency in his own right, Allan assisted in the search for a successor. He duly relinquished his post to A. Lee Fritschler, who was inaugurated as the twenty-sixth president of the college in the autumn of 1987. With modesty and humor, Allan considered his crowning achievement as president to be the return of the Mermaid (in well-crafted facsimile) to its rightful and celebrated place atop Old West. Allan continued to serve as dean of the college until his retirement.

Birth: April, 6 1828; New Castle County, Delaware

Death: August 8, 1862 (age 34); Front Royal, Virginia

Military service: USA, 1861-62

Unit: 3rd Delaware Infantry

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1856)

William R. Aldred was the oldest of 10 children. While attending Dickinson, Aldred joined the Union Philosophical Society in 1852.  After graduation Aldred returned to Delaware where he became a teacher and conducted his own school.  He married Eliza Hammersly, on March 22, 1862 and had a son named William Aldred.  At the outbreak of the war he became a 1st lieutenant in the 3rd Delaware Infantry where he later rose to the rank of adjutant.  He died at Front Royal, Virginia from exposure to heat.

Birth: December 13, 1830; Berks County, Pennsylvania

Death: September 28, 1880 (age 49); Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania

Military Service: USA, 1862-65

Unit:  132nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 34th Pennsylvania Militia, 202nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1852 non-graduate)

Charles Albright was the son of Solomon and Mary Miller Albright. He was a student for a time at the select school at Seyfert's Mills near his home in 1845 and then enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1852 in September 1848. While at the College, he was a particularly active member of the Union Philosophical Society, chairing the committee, for example, that petitioned the board of trustees to expand the society's library in West College. He withdrew from his undergraduate course in 1851 to undertake the study of law with Robert L. Johnson in Edenburg, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Benson Akers was born on February 3, 1829 in Akersville, Brush Creek Township in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest son of carding mill owner Israel Akers and his wife, Elizabeth Lewis Akers. The younger Akers was educated locally, taught Sunday School, and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1858. He became a member of the Belles Lettres Society and, following graduation with his class, studied to become a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Akers became a pastor under the East Baltimore Conference in 1858 and served in various churches until 1868, when he moved to the new Central Pennsylvania Conference. There he served as pastor in Howard Township in Centre County and was principal for a short while at the Catawissa Seminary. Akers was also pastor and schoolteacher at Hyner in Centre County and at Whitehaven in Luzerne County. He retired in 1889.

In February 1863, Akers married Henrietta Gallagher. The couple had a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Elizabeth. His first wife died and in May 1874, Akers married Lydia A. Gibbony. This second union produced a son, Herbert, in 1875. Joseph Benson Akers died of a stroke one week after his retirement in Bellwood, Pennsylvania on October 27, 1889. He was sixty years old.

Samuel Agnew was born August 10, 1777 in Millerstown, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the son of James and Mary Ramsey Agnew. He studied first under the Rev. Matthew Dobbin near his home and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle. He graduated with the class of 1798 and began studies in medicine with the prominent Franklin County doctor John McClelland of Greencastle. He then went on to Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania receiving his medical degree in 1800.

Agnew returned to Gettysburg to open a practice but moved to Harrisburg in 1807. His long career as a respected practitioner in that city gave him the opportunity to publish in the scientific literature of the day and maintain his contacts with Philadelphia. He served as a surgeon in the War of 1812 between 1812 and 1814 and returned to Harrisburg when his service was over.

Agnew remained an active Presbyterian all his life; he served as Elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg for fifteen years, worked for temperance, and was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He also was elected to the board of trustees of Dickinson College, serving from 1827 to 1832.

Wilbur Adams was born on October 23, 1884 in Georgetown, Delaware, the son of William and Sarah Adams. He graduated from Georgetown High School and began his college career at Delaware College in Newark, but in 1902 he joined the class of 1905 at Dickinson College. He was a member of the Belles Lettres Society and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity; however, he withdrew in 1904 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated in 1907.

Returning to Georgetown, Adams took his bar examination and eventually opened law offices in Wilmington. He later embarked upon a political career as well. A Democrat in a mostly Republican state, in 1924 he ran unsuccessfully for state Attorney General. Adams had more luck in 1932 as a candidate for a seat in the Seventy-third United States Congress. The only Democrat elected in a state-wide race, he won by a margin of only 2,857 votes. He served his term but was not a candidate for re-election in 1934, instead running in the election for a United States Senate seat, again unsuccessfully.

After the loss he resumed the practice of law, this time in his hometown of Georgetown, in 1934. He was also the acting postmaster for the town in 1937. Wilbur Louis Adams died in Lewes, Delaware on December 4, 1937 at the age of 53.

Image Citation: Dickinson Alumnus vol. 10, no. 2 (December 1932): 13.

Rolland Adams was born on December 27, 1904 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to Lemuel B. and Carrie Adams. He attended Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1927, during which time he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Adams then completed an extension course in finance from the Pennsylvania State University before entering a life-long career in publishing. He worked in various capacities, eventually serving as president of several publishing companies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was the owner and chief executive officer of the Bethlehem Globe Publishing Company until his retirement in 1970.

Adams was one of many alumni who renewed their commitment to the College during the 1950s Ten Year Development Program. During this time, the administration made new contacts and renewed previous connections with potential supporters of the College in an effort to increase its endowment. Adams was elected a trustee of Dickinson College in 1961. Two years later, the college opened Adams Hall, named for him and his first wife, Pauline S. Hornbach, whose generous donation made the new building possible. In 1966, Dickinson awarded Adams an honorary doctor of laws degree in recognition of his achievements and service. During his years as a trustee of the college, Adams served on the Executive Committee and on the Committee on Finance and Investments, and chaired the Committee on Nominations and Membership for three years. Rolland Leroy Adams died on September 1, 1979.

Having outgrown their former residence, the members of the Sigma Chi fraternity at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania purchased the former residence of Charles Berg at 41 South College Street for $32,000. This price included the cost of alterations to the building. Here they resided until the house was purchased by Dickinson College on June 23, 1964; the fraternity then moved to Quad 4 (now Baird Hall) in the Fraternity Quadrangle. The building then became known as the Todd House.

In 1900, the Sigma Chi fraternity at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania purchased a lot on West High Street adjacent to South College, and upon the site was constructed a house designed by Ray Zug, class of 1897 and a member of the fraternity. The formal dedication of the building took place in 1905.

The fraternity occupied the building only until 1925 when it was sold to the College for $9,000. In 1924 the fraternity had purchased the former home of Charles Berg on South College Street. The College rented the building to Tau Epsilon Phi, a fraternity at the Dickinson Law School. It was then razed in 1927 to make room for the new Alumni Gymnasium.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania had lost both its first house and second house to the outbreak of two world wars. But the fraternity regrouped and purchased yet another home in 1946. After some renovations, the brothers were able to move into their new home in the spring of 1947. The new house was located at 200 South College Street and was a three story red brick house with white trim and a large front porch with double white columns.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon remained at this location until 1964 when the fraternity moved into Quad 5 (now part of Baird-McClintock Hall) in the Fraternity Quadrangle. The house on South College Street was then sold to the Dickinson School of Law and was later demolished.