Reverend Howard Dantzler, Sr.

Howard Dantzler graduated from German Township High School in 1952.  He served in the US. Airforce for 4 years during the Korean Conflict. 

Rev. Dantzler then pursued higher education by attending and graduating from Wilberforce University with a BS in sociology and philosophy.  He received a Master of Liberal Arts from Bowling Green University in 1963 and was a doctorial candidate at WVU.  Rev. Dantzler is also a Rev. Howard E. Dantzler, Sr. was born in 1934 to Henry L. Dantzler, Sr. and Willie Maude Dantzler.  He is the 7th child of ten.  As a child Howard was a paperboy delivering a 10 mile route on his bicycle.  In addition, he worked as a Farmhand on a neighbors’ farm. 

graduate of Hood Theological Seminary in North Carolina. 

Employment included:  Livingston College: Instructor, Alcorn State: Chaplin, George Junior Republic: Counselor, Butler Community College: Instructor and Penn State Fayette Campus: Sociology professor beginning in 1968 until his retirement in 1995. 

Rev. Dantzler participated in the protest at the White House in the 1950’s and the March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.   During a 1960’s Student Protest at Alcorn State, the Herald Standard article dated February 24, 1995 addressing Rev. Dantzler’s retirement from Penn State reported:  On his way out of the stadium, he got a taste of law enforcement Mississippi-style;   a shielded state trooper blocked his path by leveling a shotgun barrel into his chest.  “I told him, ‘Hold it – I’m the chaplain, I’m not a student!’ “He said, ‘I’m sorry,’ and let me through.”

He is also the founding pastor of Interfaith Assembly for Christ Church and helped start a tutoring program at East End United Community Center.  His resume also includes being a board member on the Fayette County Housing Authority and East End United Community Center until 2011. 

Rev. Dantzler is the father of three sons and was married to Dorothy Neal who he met while Chaplin at Alcorn State.  They were married for nearly fifty years before her passing.

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