Cecil Burke Day was the Christian philanthropist who founded the Days Inn Hotel chain. He was born in Georgia in 1934 and would die of cancer 44 years later in that same state. After dropping out of Mercer University, Day joined the United States Marine Corps and then studied Industrial Management at Georgia Institute of…
William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was the English politician and Christian philanthropist who led the abolition of the British slave trade. Wilberforce was Born in Yorkshire, England, but his father died when William was just 8 years old, so he went to live with his aunt and uncle, Hannah and William. (It may be of interest to…
Arthur Guinness (1724 or 1725 – 1803) was the visionary, entrepreneur, and Christian philanthropist who founded the Guinness brewery business. Born into an Irish Protestant family, Guinness received £100 from his godfather Arthur Price, the Archbishop of Cashel, in the Church of Ireland. When he was about 30 years old, Guinness invested this money in…
Henry Parsons Crowell (1855–1943) was a Christian philanthropist who founded Quaker Oats Company. Born into a wealthy family (and having inherited a large sum after his father’s death at age 36), Crowell worked hard and honestly even though he probably could have lived very well from what he had inherited. He saw all that he…
Thomas Guthrie D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) was a popular Scottish preacher, writer, and Christian philanthropist who lived from 1803–1873. Born at Brechin in Forfarshire, Guthrie’s early life was spent in his native town, where his father was a merchant. His wife, Ann, was the daughter of the Rev. James Burns, one of the ministers of…
William Whiting Borden was a wealthy Christian philanthropist who had a particular passion for the Muslims of Northern China. Born in Chicago in 1887 to William and Mary, Borden’s family became wealthy through wise investments in real estate and the dairy industry. It was this family wealth that Borden would generously distribute before his death…
Our next Christian philanthropist, William Colgate, founded a company that has placed a well-known product in many of our homes even today—Colgate toothpaste. Born in Kent, England in 1783 to Robert and Sarah, Colgate migrated with his family to Maryland in 1798 because of his father’s political sympathy for the American War of Independence and…
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau was an influential businessman and inventor of machinery that shook the world (since, after all, much of the earthmoving equipment used in World War II was made by LeTourneau’s factory). Born in Richford, Vermont in 1888, LeTourneau became a wealthy and generous Christian philanthropist who worked hard and shared freely. With the…
John Davison Rockefeller was a Christian, an industrialist and a great philanthropist who founded, among other institutions, the University of Chicago and The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as Rockefeller University) in New York City. Born in 1839 to William and Eliza Rockefeller, John was the second of their six children and their…
As we saw last week in the first article in this series on Christian Philanthropists, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, lived from 1707–1791. This week, we are considering the life and giving of one of her contemporaries, John Thornton, who lived from 1720–1790. Thornton’s family was from Yorkshire, England. His father, Robert, directed the Bank…
Today I am beginning a series of short biographies of great Christian philanthropists–men and women who used their God-given wealth and privilege to advance his work. We begin with a woman who was the “Queen of Methodism,” an influential leader in the 18th century revival movement, and a great philanthropist. Selina Hastings was born on…