author
Rush Rhees
1860–1939
A Baptist minister turned university leader, he guided the University of Rochester through decades of growth and helped shape it into a stronger modern institution. His long presidency also coincided with major gifts that expanded the university’s reach in music and medicine.
1 Audiobook
The Life of Jesus of Nazareth: A Study
by Rush Rhees
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1860, Benjamin Rush Rhees studied at Amherst College and Hartford Theological Seminary before entering the Baptist ministry. He later became the third president of the University of Rochester, taking office in 1900.
Rhees led the university for thirty-five years, until 1935. During that time, the school grew substantially, and his presidency is closely associated with a period of fundraising, new development, and broader ambition for the institution.
He died in Rochester, New York, in 1939. He is remembered mainly for his long and steady leadership of the university, and his name remains especially familiar in Rochester through the landmark Rush Rhees Library.