Merle Middleton Odgers was president of Bucknell University

Bucknell University

Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

 from 1954 to 1964, when he retired as president emeritus.

Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 in 1922, and received a doctoral degree there in 1928. He taught there for 11 years, and was then named dean of Penn's new College of Liberal Arts for Women in 1933. Odgers was then president of Girard College

Girard College

Girard College is an independent boarding school on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Girard is for academically capable students, grades one through 12, and awards a full scholarship with a yearly value of approximately $42,000 to every child admitted to the...

, a Philadelphia secondary school for orphan boys, from 1936 to 1954.

Odgers authored Alexander Dallas Bache: Scientist and Educator, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press

University of Pennsylvania Press

The University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

in 1947.