Born: Ionia, Michigan, May 5, 1864.
Died: Winter Park, Florida, March 28, 1944.

Born Ionia, Michigan, May 5, 1864. Attended Bethany College, Yale University, University of Berlin, University of Chicago. A.B. Bethany College, 1886; A.M. ibid, 1887. Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1896. Instructor Bible Chair, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1893-5. Pastor Dayton, Ohio, 1887-93. Hyde Park Church, Chicago, 1894-6. Minister Memorial Church of Christ, Chicago, 1908--. Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, and Dean of the Disciples Divinity House.

Author, "Life and Teachings of Jesus," "Prophets of Israel," "The Ruling Quality," "Teachings of the Books," "Our Plea for Union and the Present Crisis," "Basic Truths of the Christian Faith," "The First Book of Samuel," "The Call of the Christ," "The Moral Leaders of Israel." "Our Bible."

The foregoing facts show a busy life for one of Dr. Willett's age, and yet these facts do not indicate anything like the amount of his activity. To this list should be added extensive travels, especially in Bible lands, and numerous addresses and sermons outside of his regular work, as well as untold labors, which cannot be tabulated. In fact, he has always had entirely too much work on hand for him to excel in any one thing; and yet it cannot be denied that he has excelled more or less in all the work he has undertaken.

In scholarship Dr. Willett is the peer of any of his contemporaries. He is a student of books, as well as of men and things, keeping abreast of the age in reading the best literature. As an educator he has been an eminent success; and as a lecturer on the public platform he has few if any equals in that department of service. His scholarly attainments, his pleasing personality, and his almost marvelous command of an easy and graceful style bring him at once into the favor of popular audiences, and consequently his services for public platform work have been much in demand.

At the same time it is probable that he himself would own that his popularity as a lecturer has not added to his influence as a preacher of the gospel, though as a preacher he has always maintained a strong hold upon the public. But preaching is such a distinctive thing in itself, that it is almost jealous of any other service that makes demands of the preacher's time and strength. The greatest preachers of the world have not dissipated their strength in outside matters.

Among many beautiful characteristics of Dr. Willett I wish to emphasize the fact that he is a gentleman, and that means vastly more than that he is a genteel man. A man may be a Christian without being a genteel man, but he cannot exhibit the graces of the Christian character without being a gentleman. It may be that he will not always agree with one in reference to questions of criticism, but one can be sure that Dr. Willett will treat him with Christian courtesy. With him the orthodoxy of love and conduct is worth more than the orthodoxy of mere words and phrases, and especially when these make for divisions among the people of God. We may not always agree with him in some of his conclusions, but we should be far afield in our appreciation of Christian character if we should fail to recognize the high-class qualities of the Christian gentleman which Dr. Willett possesses. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his."