Introduction

Biography

Wilbur was the son of itin­er­ant Me­tho­dist min­is­ter John Til­lett of North Ca­ro­li­na, and Eli­za­beth Jen­kins Wyche. He was named af­ter Me­tho­dist theo­lo­gian Will­bur Fisk (1792–1839). He mar­ried twice, to Kate Or­mond School­field, and Lau­ra Mc­Cloud.

This emi­nent theo­lo­gian, hym­no­lo­gist, au­thor, teach­er, faith­ful min­is­ter of the gos­pel was mem­ber of four Gen­er­al Con­ferences of his church, the Me­thod­ist Epis­co­pal Church, South, and three times ap­point­ed to mem­ber­ship on its hym­nal Com­mis­sions—1886, 1904, and 1930.

Educated at Ran­dolph-Ma­con College, Prince­ton, and Prince­ton Theo­lo­gi­cal Se­mi­na­ry he was giv­en ho­nor­ary de­grees by Ran­dolph-Ma­con Col­lege, Wes­ley­an, South­west­ern, and North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ties. Af­ter preach­ing…at Dan­ville, Vir­gin­ia (1880–1882), and act­ing as Chap­lain and tu­tor in Theo­lo­gy at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty for a year, he was or­dained in 1883.

Spending the re­maind­er of his life at Va­nder­bilt, he was in turn Pro­fess­or of Sys­tem­at­ic Theo­lo­gy, Pro­fess­or of Chris­tian Doc­trine, Dean of the Theo­lo­gic­al Fa­cul­ty, and Vice-Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty. He was made Dean Eme­ri­tus in 1919.

A full ac­count of Dean Til­lett, writ­ten af­ter se­ver­al years’ as­so­ci­ation with him, may be found in Our Hym­no­dy (Mc­Cut­chan).

A vo­lu­min­ous writ­er, his con­tri­bu­tions to re­li­gious and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions were nu­mer­ous, and he had eight books pub­lished.

Robert G. McCutchan
Quot­ed in the Hym­na­ry