Abram Bosler (1884-1930)

Abram Bosler was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1884, the son of George Morris Bosler. In 1901, he graduated from the Dickinson Preparatory School, and attended the local Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1905. During his time at the college, Bosler was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and took the science course. He graduated with his class in the early summer of 1905.

After a few months in Wyoming with the family cattle business, he returned to succeed his father as director of the Carlisle Deposit Bank and eventually became its president. He was also involved with the Fidelity and Trust Company of Baltimore. Bosler also served as president of the Carlisle Shoe Company until his retirement in 1929. As a member of perhaps the leading family in Carlisle, he followed extensive civic activities including membership on the board of the Carlisle Hospital and of the Carlisle Country Club. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College from 1914 until 1930. He was a Republican and an elected member and president of the city council. He was an active Mason and a member of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle.

He had married Grace Wood Freeforn of White Stone, Long Island in June 1912, and built a home on the corner of High and College Streets. Owing to a family experience with fire, Bosler built the house of reinforced concrete, the first such residence in Carlisle. The couple had four children, George, Abram, Martha, and Mary Wood. The Great Depression hurt Bosler’s personal investments to such an extreme that he took his own life on December 26, 1930. He was forty-six years old.

His widow remained in the family home until 1946, when she sold the building to the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. In turn the college purchased the “Crow House” in 1964 to house the Admissions Office, now the Robert A. Waidner Admissions House.