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When President Charles A. Blancharddied Blanchard died from a heart attack at age 77 in 1925, Dr. John Wallace Welsh, pastor of College Church, college trustee and occasional instructor, was called to serve as acting president ad interim. Blanchard'ssuccessor s successor was originally intended to be W. H. Griffith-Thomas, theReformed the Reformed Episcopal author, Keswick Conference preacher and co-founder (with Lewis Sperry Chafer) of Dallas Theological Seminary. The plan wasthat was that Griffith-Thomas, when asked to join the teaching staff in 1923, would eventually assume the presidency; but he declined the offer. Before coming to Wheaton, Welsh, a native of Elmira, N.Y., pastored inPrincetonin Princeton, IL, at the church once led by abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, anoriginal an original trustee of Wheaton College. During his Princeton years, Welshenjoyed Welsh enjoyed close association with evangelist Billy Sunday, who preached asweeping as weeping revival from Welsh's church. The 1927 [[Tower] describes Welshas Welsh as "…resourceful, self-reliant, aggresiveaggressive, unceasing…" He had two sons: John, Jr, who became the college's first physician, and Evan, who alsoserved also served as pastor of College Church (1933-46), and later as chaplain forWheaton for Wheaton College Alumni Relations. John W. Welsh served faithfullyduring faithfully during uncertain days until a young evangelist named J. Oliver Buswellwas Buswell was unanimously elected as Wheaton's third president in 1926. Shortlythereafter Shortly thereafter Welsh retired from College Church and moved west to do fieldwork for the Los Angeles Bible School. |
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