M. Woolsey Stryker

Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, D.D., Litt. D., LL.D., (January 7, 1851 – December 6, 1929), an American clergyman, was Pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and President of Hamilton College in upstate New York from 1892-1917. He distanced Hamilton from the Presbyterian Church, moving it towards becoming a more secular institution. Early life Stryker was born in Vernon, Oneida County, New York, to Rev. Isaac Pierson Stryker (1815–1899), a Presbyterian minister, and Alida Livingston Woolsey (1822–1859). His maternal grandfather was Commander Melancthon Taylor Woolsey. Educated at the Rome Academy and Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 1872 and later received a D.D (1888), Stryker also attended Auburn Theological Seminary, graduating in 1876. He received honorary degrees from Lafayette College in 1889 and Wesleyan College in 1909. Career Rev. Stryker's first position was in Auburn, New York. In 1878 he took another position in Ithaca, and in 1883 he accepted a position in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In 1885 Rev. Stryker became pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.