William Wilkins was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1779, one of ten children of Captain John Wilkins, an influential Presbyterian land-owner who later went into business in Pittsburgh, and his wife Catherine Rowan. His sister, Nancy Wilkins, married Ebenezer Denny, the first mayor of Pittsburgh, and Hamar Denny, who also attended the local Dickinson College, was his nephew. William returned to his birthplace to enter Dickinson's class of 1802 but did not graduate and instead studied the law under David Watts.

He was admitted to the Pittsburgh Bar in December 1801 and began a private practice. He later entered manufacturing and banking, becoming the first president of the Bank of Pittsburgh in 1814. He was elected to the state house as a Federalist in 1821 but resigned soon after to become the presiding judge of the fifth judicial district of Pennsylvania. In 1824, he became a federal judge and in 1831 was selected to the United States Senate as a Jacksonian Democrat. He served until 1834 when he was named Minister to Russia after challenging Van Buren's bid for the vice presidency. When he returned, he served briefly in the House until President Tyler appointed him to be his Secretary of War in February 1844, a post in which he advocated western territorial expansion. When he left this position in 1845, it was his last involvement with politics other than a short term as a Democratic state representative in between 1855 and 1857.

Robert Whitman was from Binghamton, New York, where he graduated from Central High School. He entered Dickinson with the class of 1938, but spent only his freshman year at Dickinson before transferring to the United States Naval Academy. He graduated from Annapolis in 1939. While at the College, he became a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and participated in freshman football. Whitman lost his life on June 4, 1942, while in action as a Navy pilot during the Battle of Midway.

Jesse Wharton was born in Covesville in Albermarle County in Virginia on July 29, 1776, a year after his brother Austin Wharton (1775-1835). Both attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and graduated with the class of 1794. While his brother Austin went on to practice medicine in Cumberland County, Virginia, Jesse studied the law and was admitted to the Bar in his home county. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his practice and was elected as a Republican to the Tenth Congress in 1807 serving only one term. He remained prominent in Tennessee Republican circles and five years later was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George W. Campbell. He served from March 17, 1814 to October 10, 1815, when a successor was elected.

He continued his law practice in Nashville although President Andrew Jackson appointed him as a member of the board of visitors to the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York in 1832. He married and had at least one daughter, Sarah, who married Thomas Jefferson Green of North Carolina. Green was later a general in the Texas forces and a hero of the Texas Revolution. Wharton also raised and educated his brother William's orphaned sons, both of whom also later played a prominent role in the Texas War of Independence. Jesse Wharton died in Nashville on July 22, 1833.

Erastus Wentworth was born in Stonington, Connecticut on August 5, 1813. He was educated at local and Congregationalist schools until at eighteen he converted to Methodism at a revival. He attended the Cazenovia Seminary beginning in 1832 and by 1837 had earned an undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University.

He embarked on his teaching career at Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary in 1838, serving under the young Jesse Truesdell Peck. He followed Peck to his new post as head of the Troy Conference Academy in Poultney, Vermont in 1841. In 1846 Wentworth himself was named to the presidency of McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois. In 1850 he was unanimously elected to the chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, replacing Spencer Fullerton Baird who had resigned to accept a position as Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. His old mentor Peck was again involved in this appointment as he was currently serving as the tenth president of Dickinson. Allegheny College had awarded him a doctorate in 1850, and Doctor Wentworth's combination of preaching skills and a witty but gentle sarcasm made him a extremely popular professor among students at the College over the next four years. But in 1854, he resigned his position to lead a Methodist Mission to Foochow in China, taking with him some of the Dickinson graduating class, notably Otis Gibson.

Edwin H. Webster was born at Churchville in Harford County, Maryland to Henry and Martha Webster on March 31, 1829. From a Presbyterian family, he prepared for college at the local Academy and later at the famed New London Academy in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1844 and graduated three years later with the class of 1847.

Robert Blaine Weaver was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1850 to John H. and Lacey Davidson McCord Weaver. He attended the local Dickinson Preparatory School, before entering the College proper in 1870. Weaver joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity at Dickinson and graduated from the College in 1874.

He went on to become a businessman in Carlisle. Throughout his life, he was an active member of the Union Philosophical Society and the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. In his later years, he resided with his sister, Laura Davidson Weaver, at 127 North Hanover St., the house in which the two were born.

On August 12, 1927, Weaver died, bequeathing his entire estate, valued at approximately $65,000, to his sister, with the money to be directed to Dickinson upon her death. On July 15, 1932, Laura Davidson Weaver died, leaving $35,296 and the property on North Hanover St., appraised at $7000, to the College. With this gift, the Robert Blaine Weaver Chair of Political Science was established in 1950.

Isaac Wayne was born in 1772, the youngest of two children and the only son of Anthony and Mary Penrose Wayne of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Anthony Wayne was a distinguished Revolutionary War general who had served with Washington at Valley Forge and had contributed to the American victory at the Battle of Monmouth. Young Isaac was educated at the local common schools before graduating from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1792; he may have also attended Princeton for a short time prior to entering Dickinson. After graduation, Wayne studied law and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1795.

Just as his father had served his country in the military, Isaac Wayne served as representative of the people. He was elected to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1799 and served a two-year term; he was again elected in 1806. Four years later, he was elected a state senator. At the outbreak of war in 1812, Wayne helped to raise a cavalry troop from Chester and surrounding counties, and became a colonel in the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. When the war ended, he returned to public life, though he ran unsuccessfully as the Federalist candidate for Pennsylvania governor in 1814. He returned to the family farm in Waynesborough in Easttown Township, Chester County to attend to his estate there.

Karl Waugh was born on November 30, 1879 in Cawnpore, India. He was the youngest of the seven children born to Reverend J. W. and Jennie M. Tinsley Waugh, both missionaries. Waugh received his early education in India and high schooling in Massachusetts. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1900 as a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his master's degree the following year. He went on to Harvard in 1905 as a Thayer Scholar and then continued as a Weld Fellow until he earned his doctorate in 1907. Following his time at Harvard, Waugh served as an instructor in psychology and philosophy at the University of Chicago and Beloit College. Following war service as a psychologist with the rank of major in the office of the Surgeon General of the Army, he resumed his academic career, holding both teaching and administrative positions at Berea College and also the University of Southern California, where he was named dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Henry Miller Watts was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the son of David Watts and the grandson of Revolutionary War generals on both sides of his family. He was educated in the best schools available at the time and entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1824; his brother, Frederick Watts, had attended earlier, with the class of 1819. Following graduation, Henry studied law with Andrew Carothers, who also trained his brother and, in turn, had trained in the law office of the father of the two as a young man. Henry Watts passed the Cumberland County bar in 1827 and then, perhaps to escape the close professional family he had joined, traveled to Pittsburgh in the west of the state to set up his own practice.

Frederick Watts was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 1801. His father was David Watts, a prominent lawyer and member of the first class to graduate from the local Dickinson College. Frederick himself entered Dickinson with the class of 1819 but did not graduate due to the temporary closing of the College in 1816. Frederick went to live with his uncle, William Miles, on Miles' farm in Erie County after the death of David Watts in 1819. However, Henry Miller Watts, Frederick's brother, did graduate from the College in 1824.