Harold P. Hamilton

Who was Harold P. Hamilton?

Harold Philip Hamilton was a soldier, college president, professor, state government official and charity administrator.

Hamilton was born in High Point, North Carolina, the youngest of eleven children of a Methodist minister.

Hamilton served during World War II in the United States Army. He began his service at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania training to be an engineer, but in preparation for the Normandy Invasion his unit was sent to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana to train as infantry. Hamilton was shipped with his unit to Europe where he was in combat with the 84th Infantry Division in France, the Netherlands and Germany in the Rhineland campaign, assault on the Siegfried Line and the Battle of the Bulge during which he was injured and returned to England for medical attention including to his frozen feet which caused him pain and problems for almost sixty years.

Hamilton was discharged from the Army in 1945 and returned to North Carolina to resume his studies. He earned a B.A. cum laude from High Point College and a B.D. and Ph.D. from the Duke University Divinity School in 1954.