William Dorland Rouse, a member of the Lycoming Law Association, died August 14, 1977.  A memorial service was held by the court.

Read the memorial resolutions:

In The Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County.

In the matter of the death of W. Dorland Rouse, Esquire.

To The Honorable, The Judges of The Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania:

The Committee appointed by Your Honorable Court to prepare an appropriate Record upon the death of W. Dorland Rouse, Esquire, submits the following:

RECORD BY THE COURT AND BAR OF LYCOMING COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, UPON THE DEATH OF W. DORLAND ROUSE, ESQUIRE.

With profound sorrow, the Court and Bar have received the announcement of the death of W. Dorland Rouse, Esquire, on 3:20 p.m. Sunday, August 14, 1977, in the Williamsport Hospital, where he had been admitted the same day.

Born July 29, 1913, in Williamsport, he was the son of Dr. Frank Rouse, a long time resident of the Newberry section of Williamsport. His father, Dr. Rouse, was a practicing physician for many years in Lycoming County and was widely and favorably known. W. Dorland Rouse’s mother was Catharine Frelthe Rouse.

W. Dorland Rouse was a graduate of Williamsport High School. Upon graduation, he entered Duke University from which he graduated four years later. He entered Dickinson Law School and graduated with his LL.B. degree in the spring of 1938. Mr. Rouse was admitted to the Bar of Lycoming County on March 11, 1940 and has been in the active practice of the law since that time up until the time of his death a period of 37 years. Mr. Rouse was a member of the Bar of the Superior and Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania and the Federal Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rouse first practiced law in Room 308 at 331 Pine Street and then removed his offices to 353 Pine Street where he actively practiced law from 1941 until 1949. In 1950 Mr. Rouse purchased the property at 531 Pine Street which is the southwest corner of Pine and Sixth Streets where he practiced law for the next 27 years.

W. Dorland Rouse was a skillful energetic and resourceful lawyer. He was skilled in the law of banking and represented the Bank of Newberry up until the time of its merger and subsequent to that merger he represented the Northern Central Bank and Trust Company with whom the Bank of Newberry had merged.

W. Dorland Rouse was a member of John F. Laedlein Lodge 707, F&AM, the Williamsport Consistory and Irem Temple Shrine, Wilkes-Barre.

W. Dorland Rouse was a rugged individualist. He was a hunter and a fisherman. He traveled extensively with the chairman of your committee throughout the northern regions of Canada from Moosenee on the James Bay to Churchill on the Hudson Bay to Prince Rupert in British Columbia on the west coast. Mr. Rouse was a senior member of the Red Fox Hunting Club whose membership includes many of Mr. Rouse’s close personal friends. He truly enjoyed nature and the great out of doors.

Surviving are his wife, the Former Marjorie Johnston; three sons, Dorland F., of Stuart, Florida, Dennis C., of Ramsey, New Jersey, and John D., of Washington, D.C., and two grandchildren.

The family requested that there be no formal memorial service by the Bar and that there would he no visitation and that the family would provide the flowers.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: that through the death of W. Dorland Rouse, his wife and sons have lost a devoted husband and father, and the Bar of Lycoming County has lost an able respected member; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: that these Resolutions be spread at length upon the records of the Court of Lycoming County and that copies thereof be sent to his wife and sons.

AND IT IS ALSO RESOLVED: that this Court and its Bar here extend to his wife and sons a deep and heartfelt expression of sympathy in this, the time of their earthly separation from their loved one.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: that this Court enter and Order that this Resolution be published in the next issue of the Lycoming Reporter.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard T. Eisenbeis
George E. Orwig, II
Richard Roesgen, II
Charles A. Szybist
Charles R. Bidelspacher, Chairman