C. T. (Charles Taze) Russell

Born in Pittsburgh in 1852, Charles Taze Russell grew up in a Presbyterian home, spent time in Congregational circles, and as a young man became deeply interested in Bible prophecy and the question of Christ’s return. Those interests led him into the Adventist world and eventually into independent preaching and publishing.

Russell is best known for organizing Bible study circles that became the Bible Student movement. He founded Zion’s Watch Tower in 1879 and later helped establish the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, using print, lectures, and extensive speaking tours to spread his teachings.

He died in 1916 while traveling and left behind a movement that soon divided in different directions. Even so, his writing, publishing work, and religious organizing had a lasting impact on modern millenarian Christianity, especially on the stream that later developed into Jehovah’s Witnesses.