Philip M. Bikle

"REV. PHILIP M. BIKLE, Ph. D., Pearson professor of the Latin language and literature in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, was born in Smithsburg, Md., December 1, 1844, son of Christian and Barbara Bikle, of German and French descent. The former by trade was a cabinet-maker. Philip M. is the sixth born of nine sons and two daughters. He obtained the rudiments of an education in his native village. In 1860 he entered North Carolina College at Mount Pleasant, of which his brother, L. A. Bikle, was president. At the beginning of our civil war he returned to Maryland, where he taught a public school for one year. In 1863 he entered Pennsylvania College as a freshman, graduated with honor and the Latin salutatory in 1866. For one year thereafter he was occupied in teaching in the academy at York, Penn. He was ordained a minister in 1869, and from that year until 1870 he was professor of Greek and Latin in North Carolina College. From 1870 to 1873 he was the assistant principal of the female seminary at Lutherville, Md. During the years 1873-74 he took a post- graduate course at Dartmouth College, and from 1874 to 1881 was professor of physics and astronomy in his alma mater. Since the latter date he has held his present relation with Pennsylvania College. From 1874 to 1879 Prof. Bikle was the secretary of the Maryland Synod, and from 1874 until 1876 he was the secretary of the Lutheran Ministers’ Insurance Association. He has also edited the Pennsylvania College Monthly since 1877, and has been one of the editors of the Lutheran Quarterly since 1880. He received the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy from Roanoke College in 1884. "