Later Life
When he retired from military service in 1870, Runkle was a Major and brevetted colonel in the regular Army. From 1879–1880 he studied at the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Gambier, Ohio and from 1880–1885 served as rector of parishes at Galena, Ohio, Midland, Michigan, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Greencastle, Indiana. Runkle married his second wife, Lalla McMicken, February 10, 1894 in Los Angeles, California. Runkle was the only founder of Sigma Chi to become Grand Consul, serving as the seventh national president from 1895-1897.
Runkle held commands at the Peekskill Military Academy, the Military School in Freehold, New Jersey, and at the Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio from 1902 to 1909. He served as trustee of Miami University from 1863–1872 and from 1912 until his death. Runkle died at his home in Hillsboro, Ohio on June 28, 1916, the fraternity's sixty-first birthday. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Grave 240, in Virginia.
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