DWIGHT, Timothy, Rev. [1828-1916] -- American scholar

Dwight, Timothy, educator, was born in Norwich, Conn., Nov. 16, 1828; son of James and Susan (Breed) Dwight; grandson of President Timothy ¤ and Mary (Woolsey) Dwight; great-grandson of Maj. Timothy and Mary (Edwards) Dwight; and great-great-grandson of Jonathan and Sarah (Pierpont) Edwards. He was graduated at Yale in 1849, studied theology there, 1851-53, and was licensed to preach. He was tutor at Yale, 1851-55; studied in the universities of Bonn and Berlin, 1856-58, and on his return was elected Buckingham professor of sacred literature at Yale, serving, 1858-86. He was ordained a minister of the gospel, Sept. 15, 1861.

He was elected president of the corporation of Yale college as successor to Noah Porter, July 1, 1886, serving as president of the college, 1886-87, and as president of Yale university from May 25, 1887, at which time the act of the legislature of Connecticut, as passed in January, 1887, making the college a university, was accepted by the president and fellows of the corporation. The report of the president of Yale for the year ending Dec. 31, 1896, shows that within the ten years, from 1886, fifteen new university buildings had been erected; five of the older buildings had been altered and enlarged and one building had been purchased; additional land had been secured in the vicinity of the academic campus for future use as sites for additional buildings; the number of students had increased from 1076 in 1886, to 2415 in 1896; the instructors from 114 to 238; the permanent fund had increased two-fold; and the gifts for all purposes amounted to more than four millions of dollars. He resigned the presidency of Yale university Nov. 17, 1898, but did not discontinue his services until the close of the class year, 1899, and at the commencement exercises he introduced as his successor, Arthur Twining Hadley, ¤ who then held the chair of political economy.

President Dwight was elected in 1890 a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He received the degree of D.D. from [p.361] Chicago theological seminary in 1869 and from Yale in 1886, and the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1886, and from the College of New Jersey in 1888.

He was associate editor of the New Englander from 1866; and was a member of the American committee for the revision of the English version of the Bible, 1872-85; editor of several volumes of the American edition of Meyer's Commentary of the New Testament to which he added extended notes; and of Godet's Commentary on St John's Gospel which, in its third edition, he translated and to which he added a preface, introductory suggestions and extended annotations. He is the author of The True Ideal of an American University, originally published in the New Englander, and of Thoughts of and for the Inner Life (1899), made up from selections from his sermons preached in the college chapel during his presidency. BDNA

• Grandfather: ¤DWIGHT, Timothy, Rev. [1752-1817]