Robert Watson

Robert Watson

Date

1906

Biographical Sketch

Rev. Dr. Robert Watson was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, May 6, 1865, the eldest son of Robert and Catherine (Thomson) Watson, the descendant of two sturdy old Scottish families. He removed with his parents to Canada in 1873, where Dr. Watson ‘s father was for a number of years a Home Missionary in New Brunswick and afterward the representative of the British-American Tract Society in the eastern part of Canada and in Newfoundland.

Dr. Watson was graduated, B.A., from the University of New Brunswick, Canada, in 1893, and received his M.A. from Princeton, 1895, and Ph.D. from Gale, 1901; honorary D.D., Reformed Presbyterian College, Cedarville, 1905; Washington and Jefferson, 1915. He was graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1896. He was supply of the Gaston Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia (1895); pastor, Oxford, Pa. (1896-1905); Second Church, Cincinnati, Ohio (1905-1908); Church of the Covenant, Cincinnati (1908-1915); Second Presbyterian Church of New York (1915-1923); Professor, Sociology and New Testament, Gordon College, Boston, Mass.; pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Boston, Mass. (1923-1929); Executive Secretary, Lord's Day League of New England, Boston, Mass. (1929). He was Professor of Pastoral Theology in Lane Theological Seminary, 1905-1909, and was a trustee of Lincoln University, Pa., Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio, and University of Wooster.

Dr. Watson was a life-member and Chaplain of the St. Andrew’s Society of the State of New York, and a member of Alpha Alpha and Alpha Sigma, and of the Clergy Club, New York, and Union Club, Cincinnati. He was a member of the Executive Committee, special representative of the Evangelistic Committee, and member of the Committee on Moral and Social Problems, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, and was a Commissioner to four General Assemblies and delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council, Aberdeen, Scotland, June, 1913.

Dr. Watson married, July 23, 1896, Georgia Maude Belyea, daughter of Henry Albert and Millicent (Nevers) Belyea, a well-known Loyalist and Huguenot family of New Brunswick. They had seven children: Paul Belyea, Knox Belyea, Grace Navarre, Ruth Navarre, Robert Belyea, Mary Stewart and Robert Wycliffe. The eldest son (Paul Belyea) attended the United States Naval Academy. Dr. Watson died in 1936 in Newton Center, Massachusetts.

(Sources: Scots and Scots Descendants in America, Part V, and Rootsweb)

Keywords

Cedarville, college, university, history, commencement

Robert Watson

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