Lewis Guy Rohrbaugh (1884-1972)

Lewis Guy Rohrbaugh was born on February 24, 1884 in Fowblesburg, near Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Franklin High School in Reisterstown in 1903 and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During his college years, Rohrbaugh became a member of Alpha Chi Rho, Omicron Delta Kappa and the Union Philosophical Society. He graduated in 1907, studied at Drew Theological Seminary for his B. D. degree and earned his Ph.D. at the State University of Iowa in 1922 in philosophy and religion.

He returned to Dickinson as an associate professor of philosophy and religious education that same year and, in 1930, became professor of philosophy and religion. Rohrbaugh was appointed as the dean of the freshman class in 1933. He later also chaired his department. An ordained Methodist minister, Rohrbaugh was also a theology scholar, publishing books and essays such as Religious Philosophy, The Science of Religion, and A Natural Approach to Philosophy. In 1951, he was appointed to the newly endowed Thomas Bowman Chair of Religion, named for the first graduate of the College to be named a Methodist bishop.

Rohrbaugh married Lillian Mae Heffelbower in 1907 and they had one son, H. Lewis Rohrbaugh, who graduated from Dickinson in 1930. He taught at the College until 1953 when he was accorded professor emeritus status. Lewis Guy Rohrbaugh died on June 30, 1972.