Dobbie studied at Columbia University, being awarded a bachelor's in 1927 and a first classmaster's in American Literature in 1929. He began teaching English in Long Island in the same year, but later returned to teach at Columbia in 1934. In 1937, he received his PhD from Columbia, and was promoted to the role of Instructor. He later became Assistant Professor in 1942, Associate Professor in 1945, and Professor in 1951. While studying and teaching, Dobbie began assisting George Philip Krapp on a six volume edition entitled the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, considered the standard of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The first three editions were mainly edited by Krapp, but he soon passed away. This left Dobbie working on the final three editions, finishing Krapp's work on The Exeter Book in 1936, and editing alone The Ango-Saxon Minor Poems in 1942, and Beowulf and Judith in 1953. He also wrote articles for the first edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia, including those on Shakespeare and Chaucer. Dobbie also served a long history with the journal American Speech, first working as assistant editor from 1939 until 1940. He was then promoted to associate editor for a year, before becoming managing editor from 1942 until 1947. During this period, he often argued with other editors over manuscript editing styles, but the journal ran smoothly enough. He was then associate editor for another three years, and a member of the editorial board from 1952 until 1965. As a philologist, he had a basic knowledge of various languages: Dobbie served on the Executive Committee of the Linguistic Circle of New York for several years, becoming Vice President from 1955 until 1957, then President from 1958 until 1960. He was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1948. He twice served as chairman of the executive committee for Columbia's Italian department, for a year in 1957 and again from 1960 until 1963. In 1966 he served as acting chairman for the English department.
Personal life
In 1937, Dobbie married Mary Lorraine Kout, an associate in Columbia's English department. She edited the second edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia. They had at least one child, a son named William. He died at his home on 23 March 1970 after suffering from a brief illness.
