Cornelius Winfield Fink (1893-1955)

Born on November 10, 1893 in Zanesville, Ohio, Cornelius Fink graduated from Muskingum College in 1914 and worked as a journalist from 1914 to 1919. He became an instructor in social science and Latin at the Dresden High School in Dresden, Ohio in 1920; two years later he took the position of instructor in economics at Ohio State University. He also matriculated there as a student to earn his master's degree in 1924. After obtaining this degree, he became an assistant professor of economics at Ohio University. He pursued further graduate work at the universities of Michigan (1928), Wisconsin (1929), and Northwestern (1930).

Fink arrived at Dickinson College in 1930 as an associate professor of economics and political science. Fink became the chairman of the economic department in 1946. At the College, Fink was active with the Debate Club. He was elected president of the Debating Association of Pennsylvania for 1945 through 1946.

Fink married Oneta Compher in 1916, a registered nurse who became the long-time director (1950-1964) of the College health center. Fink was a Mason, an avid hunter of large game and an active member of the Allison Memorial Methodist Church. His three children were Dickinsonians: son Esper, class of 1940, and daughters Mildred, class of 1941, and Phyllis, class of 1942. In his twenty-fifth year on the faculty, Cornelius Fink died on December 20, 1955 in Carlisle Hospital, two days after suffering a stroke. In February, 1957, a plaque to his memory was unveiled in the Durbin Oratory of West College on the campus.