FISK, WILBUR: First president of Wesleyan University (Conn.); b. in Brattleboro, Vt., Aug. 31, 1792; d. at Middletown, Conn., Feb. 2, 1839. After his graduation from Brown University (1815) he studied law, but became an itinerant minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1818. He held pastorates at Craftsbury, Vt., and Charlestown, Mass., and was presiding elder of the Vermont district 1823-27, when he was placed upon the superannuated list. For a time he was agent of the Newmarket (N. H.) Academy, where he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was chaplain of the Vermont legislature in 1826, principal of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., 1826-31, and president of Wesleyan University 1831-39. He had aided materially in the organization of the university, and under his direction it became the most influential educational institution of the Methodist denomination in America. While traveling in Europe in 1836 he was elected bishop, but declined the office. In 1828 he had declined the bishopric of the Canada conference. Besides occasional sermons and lectures, he published The Science of Education (Middletown, 1831; New York, 1832), the inaugural address on the opening of Wesleyan University; The Calvinistic Controversy (New York, 1837); and Travels in Europe (1838).