Harry Bixler Stock (1871-1950)

Harry Bixler Stock, 1908

Harry Stock was born on September 3, 1871, in Carlisle, growing up on the corner of Bedford and Pomfret Streets. Stock graduated from the Carlisle High School in 1886 and attended the local Dickinson Preparatory School for one year before entering Dickinson College proper with the class of 1891. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and rose to be elected president of the Belles Lettres Literary Society. Using his influence as the editor of the sports section of the Dickinsonian, he was instrumental in introducing tennis to the campus, to the extent that the first ever tennis tournament was held at the College on May 29, 1889. Stock won the tournament.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson in 1891 and taught in the public schools of Carlisle for two years. He then entered Gettysburg Theological Seminary, and earned his B.D. in 1896. He was offered the pastorate of the Second German Lutheran Church located at Bedford and Pomfret streets. Stock served the church for fifty years, during which time it changed its name to St. Paul's Lutheran. Dickinson awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1908.

Under Stock, the congregation at St. Paul's grew from only forty-five in 1896 to more than nine hundred in 1946. He remained in touch with his alma mater, representing his fraternity and serving as chapter treasurer. In the community, he served as a director of the Bosler and Hamilton Libraries and served the Carlisle Y.M.C.A. as president of the board.

He was a longtime resident in the house which became Montgomery Hall on the Dickinson campus. Harry Bixler Stock retired as pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in 1946, four years his death on October 1, 1950.

Author of Post: 
Dickinson College Archives
Date of Post: 
2005
College Relationship: 
Alumnus/Alumna Class Year: 
Honorary Degree - Year: 
1908