Doremus A. Hayes (1887)

Doremus A. Hayes

HAYES, DOREMUS ALMY (1863-1936), American preacher and theological professor, was bom May 17, 1863, at Russeluth, Ohio. He graduated at Ohio Wesleyan University with Phi Beta Kappa honors, A.B., 1884; M.A., 1886. The Boston University School of Theology granted him the S.T.B. degree in 1887. He studied abroad at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin. He received the Ph.D. in 1889, and S.T.D. in 1906 from Boston University.

On July 28, 1887, he married Hester Juvenal, to whom one son, James Juvenal, was born.

Following the completion of his academic and professional training, he served one year as pastor of the M. E. Church at San Leandro, Calif.; then for three years as professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of the Pacific; and three more years as pastor at Napa, Calif. He became professor of Biblical Theology at Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colo., in 1895.

Hayes was elected professor of the English Bible at Garrett Biblical Institute (now Garrett Theological Seminary) in 1896. As professor of New Testament Interpretation, he taught at Garrett until 1934. For twenty years he acted as librarian.

Inevitably such a creative spirit as Hayes found an outlet in the written word—partly as a means of extending his classroom work but also to express that for which there was too little time in the teaching process. In addition to articles written for professional journals, dictionaries and encyclopedias, Hayes published a total of fifteen books. Some of these are: Paul and His Epistles; John and His Writings; The Most Beautiful Book Ever Written (Luke); The Resurrection Fact, and a series on the Heights of Christian Love—Unity, Living, and Devotion.

The wide range of his interests may be noted by the societies to which he belonged. Some of these were: Society of Biblical Research, The Religious Education Association, The American Peace Society, The American Institute of Civics, and the Chicago Theological Faculty Union, of which society he served as president for one term.

Hayes was a fascinating teacher, though his methods would cause a present-day teacher or student to smile. His lectures were written out meticulously, and read with preciseness, but with enthusiasm as well. The lecture of one day was reviewed in a quiz at the beginning of class on the following day. The final examination, from which students who had fared well in the quiz periods were excused, called for a rather formal repetition point by point of some of the lectures. Despite its mechanical quality, his students have found that much of what these lectures covered remains across the years. He threaded his way confidently through all the maze created by New Testament scholarship, especially in the heady days of Higher Criticism. He had a reason for the faith that was in him—as critics in the classroom or elsewhere throughout the church found out quickly.

His love for the Greek language knew no bounds. He looked forward to the possibility of continuing classes in Greek in the “heavenly world” with the confessed hope that the Master himself might drop in occasionally.

Charles Reynolds Brown, for many years dean of Yale Divinity School, wrote of Hayes, who was his classmate, calling him “one of the most spiritually minded men I have ever known.”

Doremus Almy Hayes died May 20, 1936.

[This biography reprinted from Smith, Horace Greeley, “Hayes, Doremus Almy.” In Encyclopedia of World Methodism, edited by Nolan B. Harmon, 1098-1099. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1974.]

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