George Edmands Merrill papers, M4043

Pastor, scholar, and former Colgate University President George Merrill was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on December 19, 1846. He was educated at Harvard University (AB 1869) and Newton Theological Institution (AM 1872), and was awarded honorary degrees from Colby University (DD 1893) and the University of Rochester (LLD 1901). From 1872 to 1899 he served as the pastor of several Baptist congregations in Springfield, Massachusetts (1872-1877), Salem, Massachusetts (1877-1885), Colorado Springs, Colorado (1885-1887), and Newtown, Massachusetts (1890-1899). He was inaugurated as the sixth president of Colgate University in 1899, where he also served as a professor of pastoral theology. He was the author of several works on theology including Story of the Manuscripts (1881), Crusaders and Captives (1890), The Reasonable Christ (1893), Parchments of the Faith (1894), and The Song of Songs (1904), before his death in Hamilton on January 11, 1908.

Colgate University, General Catalogue (Hamilton, New York: Colgate University, 1939): 6.