Paul G. Rodewald

Class of 1921: Lawyer

Born May 16, 1899, on a farm in Newton Township, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, Paul Gerhard Rodewald went on to become a distinguished lawyer and earn nearly every honor that Ripon College bestows.

As a fellow Ripon College Trustee would later recount, Rodewald “left his Manitowoc farmhouse, went to a local banker and borrowed all of the money necessary to put himself through Ripon and then Harvard Law School, long before the bureaucracy and the banks invented federally guaranteed student loans. Which is a tribute to Paul and his banker.”

At Ripon, Rodewald majored in history and political science and participated in numerous activities. He was editor-in-chief of Crimson yearbook and took part in debate, Mask and Wig, YMCA and forensics. He also was known to take long hikes with Bruno Jacob, Class of 1922, which were dutifully reported in College Days: 20 miles to Fond du Lac in five hours, to Appleton and to Green Lake.

He helped found Ripon’s fraternity chapter of Phi Kappa Pi, known locally as Merriman. And as an undergraduate during his junior year, he taught New Testament Greek for a semester during a professor’s extended sick leave.

He graduated from Harvard Law School and in 1924 joined a prominent Pittsburgh law firm. Within six years, he became a partner and the firm was then known as Buchanan, Ingersoll, Rodewald, Kyle and Buerger.

Throughout his career, he remained steadfastly loyal to Ripon, and Ripon honored him for that. He served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors for several years. He then served for 16 years on the Board of Trustees, from 1957-1976, with four of those years as chairman. He was elected chairman in 1965 and Honorary Life Trustee in 1976.

He received Ripon’s Distinguished Alumni Citation in 1947, was the Commencement speaker and recipient of the honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1978, and the Medal of Merit honoree for his lifetime service to the College in 1988.

In 1953, when Ripon College received its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society, he was one of only three alumni of the College who were given retroactive membership.

Among his other honors, he was listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.

In a Ripon College alumni questionnaire in 1930, he cites his hobby as “destroying fixed ideas.”

He died May 1, 1993, at the age of 93.

Several relatives also attended Ripon, including a grandson, John S. Rodewald, Class of 1985.