Richard McIlwaine

Richard McIlwaine (May 18, 1835 – August 9, 1913) was the eleventh President of Hampden–Sydney College from 1883 to 1904. He wrote an autobiographical account of his life experiences titled Memories of Three Score Years and Ten. Early life Richard McIlWaine was born in Petersburg, Virginia, of Scotch Irish descent. His father, Archibald Graham McIlwaine, was a mogul in flaxseed brokerage. He attended Hampden–Sydney College alongside his brothers, J. Finley McIlwaine (graduating in 1858 and a trustee from 1866 to 1870) and Archibald Graham McIlwaine Jr. (graduating in 1865). He was an 1853 alumnus of the college at the age of 19. Their father was a major benefactor to the college, donating $5000 in 1859 ($142,857 in 2014 dollars), "the largest single cash gift to the College to that date and for over thirty years after". He then went on to study at the University of Virginia, where, in 1855, he was a founding brother of Beta Theta Pi. He also studied at the Union Theological Seminary and the Free Church College of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was licensed by the East Hanover presbytery in 1857.