George James Allan (1935- )

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.