Clyde A. Lynch

Clyde Alvin Lynch (August 24, 1891 – August 6, 1950) was an American pastor, professor of homiletics and theology, and president of Lebanon Valley College from 1932 until his death. As well as holding positions in national educational associations and in the masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Lynch chaired the Pennsylvania Commission on Displaced Persons.

Early life Lynch was born at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a son of John Henry Lynch by his marriage to Carmina Blanche Keys. He was educated at public schools in Harrisburg, and then at the Lebanon Valley Academy.

While not yet twenty, Lynch dedicated himself to the ministry of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (New Constitution). In 1909 he received a Quarterly Conference License to preach, and in 1910 an Annual Conference License. In 1911–1912, he was a regular pastor on the Centerville Circuit in Lancaster County, and in 1912, while a preparatory student, he was appointed to serve churches in Linglestown and Rockville, in Dauphin County. A year before that, Lebanon Valley College had awarded Lynch the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, in recognition of his services to the church. He was then appointed as professor of homiletics and practical theology at the Bonebrake Theological Seminary.

On December 1, 1932, Lynch took office as President of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, his own alma mater, following the death in April 1932 of the previous President, Dr G. D. Gossard. He continued to hold the post until his own early death at the age of 58 in 1950.

In 1943, Lynch created a General Campaign Committee to raise $550,000 "for the purpose of creating a Physical Education Building, of increasing our endowment, and of liquidating our indebtedness." Their daughter, Rose Eleanor Lynch, born in 1915 and known as Eleanor, graduated from Lebanon Valley College in the class of 1936, was married in 1940, becoming Mrs Vernon C. Hemperly, and died in 1995. They also had a son, John H. Lynch,

In 2015, a group of the college's students asked for the name of Lynch to be removed from the Memorial Hall, as they considered the name to be a microaggression, reminding them of the practice of lynching; but this suggestion was rejected. This led to brief national interest in the life of Lynch and mocking of the students' requests. The controversy surrounding this was derided by journalist Emily Shire, in an article for The Daily Beast, as "The Dumbest College Renaming Debate Yet".