Charles Wesley Emerson

Charles Wesley Emerson (1837–1908) was the founder, namesake and first president of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Emerson was also a minister with the Unitarian Church and the author of a number of books dealing with oratory. Life and career Charles Wesley Emerson was born in Pittsfield, Vermont, in 1837 to Thomas and Mary F. (Hewitt) Emerson, and he was a distant cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Emersons moved to Stockbridge, Vermont, in 1845 where his father was a notable teacher. Emerson studied with Prof. Augustus Wing, and began preaching at age nineteen. Prior to establishing the college, Emerson was a minister who preached in Congregational and Unitarian parishes until 1885.