Frank C. and Delia L. Porter papers

FRANK CHAMBERLIN PORTER B. D. 1886

Born January 5, 1859, in Beloit, Wis.

Died January 24, 1946, in New Haven, Conn.

Father, Rev. William Porter, D.D. (B.A. Williams 1839; Andover Theological Seminary 1840-41; Union Theological Seminary 1841-1843), Brinsmade Professor of Latin at Beloit College; son of William and Mary Ann (Quincy). Porter of Lee, Mass. Mother, Ellen Gertrude (Chapin) Porter; daughter of Laertes and Laura (Colton) Chapin of Hartford, Conn.

Beloit High School and Preparatory School of Beloit College; B.A. Beloit College 1880, M.A. 1883; attended Chicago Theological Seminary 1881-1882, Hartford Theological Seminary 1884-1885, and Yale Divinity School 1885-1889 (B.D. 1886, Ph.D. 1889; Commencement speaker); ordained in First Church of Christ (Congregational), New Haven, January, 1895; teacher of mathematics and Greek Chicago High School 1882-84; on faculty Yale University 1889-1946 (instructor in Biblical Theology 1889-1891, Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology 1891-1927, and Winkley Professor emeritus 1927-46; librarian Trowbridge Reference Library 1895-1925; Nathaniel W. Taylor lecturer 1928-1929); taught in summer session Southwestern School of Theology 1911 and University of Chicago 1923, and gave courses at Haverford College 1912 and Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa., 1924; Bond lecturer Bangor Theological Seminary 1917 and Dudleian lecturer Harvard University Divinity School 1924; lecturer Oberlin Theological Seminary 1917 and Peking University 1924-25; D.D. Beloit College 1897 and Yale University 1931; author: "The Yercer Hara" in Biblical and Semitic Studies (1901), The Messages of the Apocalyptical Writers (1905), "The Pre-Existence of the Soul in the Book of Wisdom and in the Rabbinical Writings" in Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Honor of W. R. Harper (1907), "The Mysticism of the Hebrew Prophets" in At One With the Invisible edited by E. Hershey Sneath, '84 D.(1921), "Paul's Belief in Life After Death" in Religion and the Future Life edited by E. Hershey Sneath (1922), "The Historical and the Spiritual Understanding of the Bible" in Education for Christian Service (1922), The Mind of Christ in Paul (1930), and "Toward a Biblical Theology for the Present" in Contemporary American Theology (2d series; edited by Vergilius Ferm; 1933); contributed articles on the Apocrypha, Judith, Proselyte, Book of Revelation, etc., to Hasting's Bible Dictionary (1898-1902) and to theological journals; associate editor Journal of Biblical Literature 1917-1920, 1922-1925, 1929-30; his Collected Papers were published in 1928; the volume Studies in Early Christianity, edited by Shirley J. Case, '04 D., to honor Professor Porter and Professor Benjamin W. Bacon, '81, was published in 1928; member Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis and American Theological Society; honorary deacon Center Church (Congregational), New Haven.

Married June 10, 1891, in New Haven, Delia Wood Lyman (Wellesley 1875-1877), daughter of Professor Chester Smith Lyman (B.A. 1837) and Delia Williams (Wood) Lyman, granddaughter of Joseph Wood (B.A. 1801), great-granddaughter of Oliver Ellsworth (Class of 1766), great-great-granddaughter of William Wolcott (B.A. 1734), and sister of Oliver E. Lyman, '76, and Chester W. Lyman, '82. Children: Lyman Edwards, '16, and William Quincy, '19. Mrs. Porter died January 16, 1933.

Death due to cerebral hemorrhage. Buried in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven. Survived by sons, two grandchildren, and a sister, Mary Quincy Porter (Wellesley 1889-1890) of New Haven.

In 1935 Professor Porter made a gift to the University to endow the Delia Lyman Porter Social Fund in the Divinity School. A portrait of Professor Porter, a gift of the alumni of the Divinity School, was presented to the School in 1936.

Yale Obituary Record, No. 105, p. 194.