Phi Beta Kappa – Original Student Members

Born in Chester, South Carolina to Z. V. and Kate Gaston Davidson, Robert
Franklin Davidson attended Davidson College where he was Salutatorian of
the Class of 1923 and was the first student initiated into the Davidson
chapter of Phi Beta Kappa that year. He entered the Louisville Presbyterian
Seminary in Kentucky in 1925 and while there was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar
from South Carolina. He completed his training at Oxford University in
1928 and later obtained a Ph. D. in Philosophy at Yale University. He was
awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from both Limestone College and
Davidson College.

Davidson joined the faculty of the University of Florida at Gainesville
in 1946 and became chairman of the department of Humanities. He was elected
dean of the faculty of St. Andrews College in North Carolina in 1962. He
remained there until 1972 when, as Dean-emeritus, he retired to Gainesville.

William Arnett Gamble received his early education in his hometown of
Macon, Georgia. Prior to entering Davidson College in 1919, Gamble was
employed by the G. S. & F. Railway and was later secretary to J. M.
Wells, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina.
During World War I, he served with the U. S. Navy. Gamble graduated Phi
Beta Kappa from Davidson College in 1923 and then attended Columbia Theological
Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. He received his B.D. degree in
1926.

Gamble was the pastor of churches in Pinetops, N.C., Raymond, Miss.,
Charlotte, N.C., and Hollandale, Mississippi. He served as State Clerk
of the Presbytery of Central Mississippi from 1956 to 1963. Gamble was
a major in the Chaplains’s Corps, U.S. Army during World War II and served
as chaplain of army posts in North Carolina and Mississippi. He published
two books ÷ Ten Sermons for Ten Years (1940) and Trumpets of
the Lord (1971).

W. Gettys Guille was born in Athens, Tennessee to the Rev. George E.
and Amy Gettys Guille. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College
in 1923, Guille moved to Salisbury, North Carolina in 1926. He then began
a 19 year career with Wachovia Bank, and later organized Builders Supply
Company.

A trustee of Bryan College of Dayton, Tennessee, and the Reformed Theological
Seminary of Jackson, Mississippi, Guille also served as trustee of Bethel
College of Mercy at Lenoir and was director of the “Presbyterian Journal.”
During his lifetime, Guille served as chairman of the Rowan Chapter of
the American Red Cross, the Salisbury Community Chest, the Salisbury Chapter
of Infantile Paralysis, and as chairman and member of the board of the
Salvation Army for 39 years.

A lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church, Guille also served as
state chaplain of the Gideon Camp organization. At the time of his death
in 1970, he was a member of the Franklin Presbyterian Church.

A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Dunbar Ogden, Jr. graduated Phi Beta
Kappa and valedictorian of his class from Davidson College in 1923. He
earned a B.D. and a Th.M. degree from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond,
Virginia before holding Presbyterian pastorates in eight states.

During the 1950’s, Ogden served as president of the Greater Little Rock
Ministerial Association in Arkansas. It was through this organization that
Ogden became known as a civil rights pioneer and leader of the integration
movement. In Little Rock on September 4, 1957, Ogden personally led nine
black children in the historic walk through the mobs and up to the line
of Governor Faubus’ National Guard placed in front of Little Rock Central
High School to prevent is integration. A year later, Ogden took the Rev.
Martin Luther King to the exercises at Central High where the first black
student was graduating.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College in 1923, Hugh
Hollingsworth Smith received his M.D. and M.P.H. (Masters of Public Health)
from Johns Hopkins University. After completing his work at Johns Hopkins,
Smith spent two years (1928-30) as instructor in medicine at Strong Memorial
Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. He then began a twenty-five year association
with the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation (1930-54).
It was during this time that Smith became the principal member of the scientific
team that developed the yellow fever vaccine for the Rockefeller Foundation.

Yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and can kill humans within
five to seven days of being infected. Thanks to Smith’s discovery of the
vaccine, however, thousands of lives have been saved from this deadly disease.
The vaccine first proved its effectiveness when in 1937 a deadly outbreak
of yellow fever in Brazil was halted by the administration of the vaccine.