Class of 1884
Dinsmore was born in New York City. Both his parents were from Woodstock, Vermont. His father was a physician and was for part of a year a member of the class of 1852. On his father's death, his mother returned to Woodstock. The lad came to Dartmouth because it was his lather's college and was near his home. Like many of our men finances were an insistent practical problem. To eke out his slender capital he essayed the night care of Dr. Clement, a retired minister of Norwich, Vermont. He wudged the weary distance from Norwich to Hanover every morning and returned in the evening. He made his Hanover home with my chum, Woodwell, and me. Here began a most delightful friendship that grows stronger with the years.
When failing health compelled him to give up college soon after the beginning of sophomore year the class bought a Waltham silver watch, marched over to Norwich two abreast, called him out and presented him with the watch as a mark of our affection and respect. He still has the watch. It doesn't run but the affection and respect do.
After a couple of years spent with a corps of engineers in the Ozark Mountains and at different points in the Mississippi Valley, his health restored, he took a course at University of Kentucky. Then he entered Yale Divinity School from which he was duly graduated. His first pastorate was at Whitneyville, Conn., then at Willimantic, then at the Phillips Congregational Church of Boston for ten years. From here he went to Waterbury, Conn. In 1920 he was called to Yale Divinity School. His subject is The Spiritual Interpretation of Literature. The chair is based on the Mattatuck Foundation. Dinsmore is its first occupant, in the fulfilment of the wish of the founder.
In 1894 Dinsmore was granted his A.B. as of the class of '84. In 1906 he was given the honorary degree of D.D. by Dartmouth. Ten years later Yale conferred on him a like degree.
The above outline while a concise statement of Dinsmore's life work as a minister, honorable and successful as it has been, in nowise tells the whole story. What may be termed his intellectual avocations has probably brought him more distinction and enlarged his sphere of usefulness more than his attainments in the routine of his chosen profession. While on vacation one summer's day he took by chance Longfellow's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy with which to beguile the morning hours of a hot day. There may have been some subtle connection in his consciousness between the heat of that summer day and the Inferno that made the comedy an appropriate subject for the occasion. He does not know about this. Suffice it to say that from that day Dinsmore dates his interest in the study of Dante. Once conscious of the merits of the Florentine's great work, he delved deeply into the thought of the author until he felt that he had grasped Dante's prophetic message. The spell of one whom Lowell says is the "highest spiritual nature that has expressed itself in rhythmical form" was on him. He prepared an article setting forth his thought of the great work, which was published by the AtlanticMonthly. A second article soon followed in the same magazine. These came to the notice of Professor Charles Elliot Norton then the foremost authority on Dante in America and a most distinguished man of letters. He gave Dinsmore encouragement and suggestions for his work. The close friendship and kinship between these great souls lasted till the Professor's death.
Dinsmore wrote and published his Teachings of Dante and Aids to the Studyof Dante during this period. These were followed by a Life of Dante. His Teachingsof Dante was well received in this country and in England and was translated into the Japanese language. It gave him high rank among students of the great Florentine. Books then began to come from his pen. The New Light on the Old Faith,Atonement in Literature and Life, Religious Certitude in an Age of Science, and The English Bible as Literature, all of which received marked attention by his fellow workers. He has given the McNair lectures in the University of North Carolina and a course of lectures before the School of Religion in Athens, Greece. He is still giving his course in Yale Divinity School and filling the intervals between by writing another book.
In his fine home "The End of the Road," Dinsmore is "growing old contentedly," full of honors. Two facts impress one in reading Dinsmore's lifework. First, that a man if so he will can overcome serious handicap in youth, and second, that an avocation often pays large dividends for the labor invested.
Secretary, R. F. D. No. 1, Traverse City, Mich. REV. CHARLES ALLEN DINSMORE, D.D.
