Charles F. Wishart

Charles Frederick Wishart (1870–1960) was a United States Presbyterian churchman who was President of the College of Wooster from 1919 to 1944 and who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1923 at the height of the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy.

Biography

Charles F. Wishart was born in Ontario, Ohio on September 3, 1870, the youngest of the twelve children of the Rev. William Wishart. On July 6, 1904, he married Josephine Long. They had three chldren, Sara (MacMillan), James Hunt, and Josephine Bosworth (Hayford). [1]

Wishart received his early education in Ontario and Hayesville, Ohio.[1] He graduated from Monmouth College, and then took a graduate degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.[1]

Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, where Wishart was pastor from 1914 to 1919.

He was ordained as a minister of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1897.[1] In 1897, he founded 11th United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, serving as its pastor until 1910.[1] He served as president of the National Young Peoples Christian Union in 1897.[1] From 1910 to 1914, he was a professor of systematic theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.[1]

In 1914, Wishart became the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, joining the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America at this time.[1] He held this position until 1919.[1] During this time, he served as a lecturer at McCormick Theological Seminary from 1915 to 1917.[1] He was a member of the General Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America from 1917 to 1919.[1]

Kauke Hall, the main academic hall of the College of Wooster, where Wishart was president 1919-44.

He left Chicago in 1919 to become president of the College of Wooster, where he served until his retirement in 1944.[1] When Wishart defended the teaching of the theory of evolution at the college, which was supported by the Presbyterian Church, the issue became heated. At the 1923 General Assembly Wishart defeated William Jennings Bryan in the election for Moderator largely on this issue.[1] He later served as Moderator of the Synod of Ohio in 1929.[1]

He died in 1960.[2]

Wishart Hall was built to honor him in 1966 with a gift from the citizens of Wayne County as a home for the Communications Department. It also contains Friedlander Speech and Hearing Clinic. [3]

Chief Publications

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Biography of Rev. Charles F. Wishart in North Central Ohio Biographies
  2. Charles Frederick Wishart, Jean Snyder Felt, Memoirs of Charles Frederick Wishart, 1870-1960 (S.l.: s.n., 1982)
  3. College of Wooster Catalog 2011-2012 p. 330.

References

Religious titles
Preceded by
The Rev. Calvin C. Hays
Moderator of the 134th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America
19231924
Succeeded by
The Rev. Clarence Edward Macartney

External links

Charles F. Wishart Ancestry.com