Amos Benjamin Horlacher (1902-1978)

Amos Benjamin Horlacher was born in 1902 in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. He attended local school until the sixth grade, when he dropped out to earn a living making wooden patterns. After the First World War, he enrolled in Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) in Williamsport, and graduated with honors in 1923. He later received his bachelor's degree from Wesleyan, where he was the quarterback of the football team, with honors in 1926. He became a Methodist minister from 1929 to 1941 on Long Island and in New York City. Between 1943 and 1947 he saw service as a Navy chaplain, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

In 1947, the president of Dickinson College, William Edel (a fellow Navy chaplain), selected him to be the first dean of Men and director of placement. While at Dickinson he was an active member of the administration, speaking out for both faculty and students. In 1953, he received his master's of education degree from Columbia University. In 1957, he resigned from his administrative post to teach full time in the English department.

In addition to his work at Dickinson, from 1951 to 1963 he was the head minister of the Unitarian Church in Harrisburg. He retired from Dickinson after twenty-three years in 1970. Still occasionally lecturing thereafter, Amos Horlacher remained in Carlisle until his death in 1978. Surviving him was his wife Thelma, who taught in the psychology department between 1949 and 1952, his two sons, Stephen and David, and his only daughter Jocelyn.