Wilbur Fisk Tillett

Wilbur Fisk Tillett (1854–1936) was an American Methodist clergyman and educator.

Early life
Wilbur Fisk Tillett was born August 25, 1854, in Henderson, North Carolina, which at that time was in Granville County (later Vance). He was named for the early 19th-century Methodist theologian Willbur Fisk. His father was an itinerant Methodist minister in North Carolina, John Tillett (1812–1890).

Tillett graduated from Randolph–Macon College in 1877 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1880.

Career
Tillett spent the bulk of his teaching career at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of the Theological Faculty after 1884 and vice chancellor after 1886. During his tenure, he invited Booker T. Washington to speak at Vanderbilt on the topic, "How can a young Southern man help in the lifting up of the Negro race?".

Tillett argued that the United States had been established by God himself to usher in the Kingdom. Moreover, he argued that the emancipation of black slaves as a result of the American Civil War of 1861–65 had been good for white Southern men as it had turned them into self-reliant hard workers instead of idle planters.

Death
Tillett died on June 4, 1936, in Nashville.

Secondary source

 * Lester Hubert Colloms, Wilbur Fisk Tillett, Christian educator (Cloister Press, 1949).