Umphrey Lee (1893–1958) was the President of

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

from 1939 to 1954.THSA
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Biography

Lee was born in

Oakland City, Indiana Oakland City is the third-largest city in Gibson County, Indiana, United States, after Princeton and Fort Branch. It is the site of Oakland City University. The population was 2,279 at the 2020 census. History Oakland City was laid out and platt ...

on March 23, 1893, to Josephus A. and Esther (Davis) Lee. His father was a farmer and Methodist minister; both of his parents were from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Lee attended

Daniel Baker College Daniel Baker College was founded April 5, 1889 in Brownwood, Texas, United States. It was named in memory of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian circuit-riding minister, who helped organize the first presbytery in Texas in 1840 and Austin ...

from 1910 to 1912, and received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from Trinity University in 1914. He received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from Southern Methodist University two years later, and his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1931. He worked as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

. In 1919, Lee established the Wesley Bible Chair at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In 1923, he became the pastor of Highland Park Methodist Church, on the Southern Methodist University campus, and taught

homiletics In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices or ...

. While at Highland Park Methodist Church, now

Highland Park United Methodist Church Highland Park United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church in Dallas, Texas. Location It is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, at 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75205. History In February 1916, a Methodist congreg ...

Dr. Lee instituted a new mission program. Beginning in 1929 at the start of the U.S. Great Depression, Highland Park Methodist Church undertook a new missionary outreach in China, with Rev.

Hubert Lafayette Sone Hubert Lafayette Sone, (1892–1970), Soong (or Sung) Hsu-Peh in Chinese, was an American Methodist missionary in China. He was a professor of Old Testament at Nanjing Theological Seminary during the Japanese invasion in 1937. Sone was among the ...

as their “Special” representative. “During the four years that the Rev. Hubert L. Sone has been our Special we have come to regard him as much a part of the ministry of this church as our preacher in charge.”,The World Outlook, April, 1933, “Our Specials”, p. 28 From 1937 to 1939, he was Dean of the School of Religion at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. Lee then served as President of Southern Methodist University from 1939 to 1954. He was the first Chancellor of Southern Methodist University from 1954 to 1958. Umphrey Lee was a member of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

, the

American Historical Society The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, the

American Society of Church History The American Society of Church History (ASCH) was founded in 1888 with the disciplines of Christian denominational and ecclesiastical history as its focus. Today the society's interests include the broad range of the critical scholarly perspectiv ...

, and the

Philosophical Society of Texas Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some s ...

. He died in University Park, Dallas County, Texas in 1958 at age 65. He was survived by his wife, Mary, and their son, Umphrey Lee. Several schools in Dallas have been named for him.

Bibliography

*''The Lord's Horseman'' (1928) *''John Wesley and Modern Religion'' (1936) *''Our Fathers and Us (The Heritage of the Methodists)'' (1958)

References

1893 births 1958 deaths American Methodist clergy Arminian ministers Arminian writers Columbia University alumni Academics from Dallas People from Oakland City, Indiana Presidents of Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University alumni Southern Methodist University faculty Trinity University (Texas) alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Vanderbilt University faculty {{US-academic-administrator-1890s-stub