James Winfield Walker

James Winfield Walker was born in Indiana in 1851. After a life of serving both in the capacity of clergyman and educator, he died in Tacoma, Washington in 1926. Walker had a very fruitful 75 years of life. He earned the degree of A. B. in 1874 from De Pauw University. After several years of working for the Northwest Indiana Conference, Walker entered the Boston University School of Theology, where he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity (B. D.) degree in 1878. He married Emma J. Back, herself a graduate of De Pauw, in 1877 at Greencastle, Indiana.

Walker entered the South Kansas Conference in 1878, where he worked for the next decade. He returned to Indiana, entering the Northwest Indiana Conference in 1894. Concurrently, he earned the Doctor of Divinity (D. D.) degree from Dakota University in 1900. Even before earning his degree, Walker taught classes in Biblical and  Ecclesiastical History at Baker University. Upon earning his doctorate, he went on a tour of Europe and the Holy Land. He visited Egypt, Palestine, Greece, France, and England. Upon returning, he continued working as a minister and educator in Indiana, until he was hired as a professor of English Bible at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

Sources:

Alumni Record, De Pauw University (1915), entry 471.

Minuetes of the Session, Northwest Indiana Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1920), 86, 384.