i

January 16 Today in OPC History

J. Oliver Buswell

2020

 

On January 16, 1895, Dr. J. Oliver Buswell, Jr. was born in Burlington, Wisconsin.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, McCormick Theological Seminary, the University of Chicago, and eventually New York University (PhD, 1949), Buswell was a constituting member of the OPC at its founding in 1936 and a close friend of J. Gresham Machen. He served as the the moderator of second General Assembly in November 1936. Following the third General Assembly in June 1937, Buswell left to help form the Bible Presbyterian Synod, eventually ending up in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.

From 1926 to 1940, Buswell served as the third President of Wheaton College, After he was dismissed from that post (in part due to his staunch Calvinism), Buswell became President of Shelton College in New Jersey (1941–1955), and then the founding dean of Covenant College (1956–1964) and Covenant Seminary (1956–1970). Both the Wheaton College and Covenant Seminary libraries bear his name.

After his retirement, Buswell and his wife, Helen, lived in the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Home, until his death on February 3, 1977.

Picture: J. Oliver Buswell and J. Gresham Machen

 

CONTACT US

+1 215 830 0900

Contact Form

Find a Church