On the campus of Princeton University is a statue that is ten-foot tall that stands on a seven-foot base.

And on the front of the statue there's a name and three panels and each of those panels are introduced with a word.

President, Patriot, preacher. And the name is John Witherspoon.

Who was John Witherspoon? Well, he was born in 1723 in Scotland. His father was a minister.

And early on he showed evidence of a call to ministry. And he also showed significant academic ability.

So he went off to the University of Edinburgh.

He went right from his bachelor's program into his master's program which he received in 1739.

And then he went off and served as a minister primarily in Paisley in Scotland.

In 1764 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of St. Andrews.

And in 1766 he was voted on to be the president of Princeton University in the colony of New Jersey and the American colonies.

But Mrs. Witherspoon was not so inclined and so he declined the offer.

Well, two years later there was a former Princeton student, Benjamin Rush, who was a medical doctor in Philadelphia.

He was studying further medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

And he happened to be a trustee of Princeton. And so he was dispatched to go meet with John Witherspoon.

And whatever, Benjamin Rush said to him.

It was enough to get John Witherspoon and Mrs. Witherspoon to cross the Atlantic and to become the president of Princeton.

He took office in 1768 and he held that office until his death in 1794.

When he got there he found things were a little bit in disarray.

They had had a succession of presidents who did not have very long terms.

One of them was back in 1758 and that was Edwards who had all of a six week term of office.

So he got very busy, rolled up his sleeves and jumped into getting Princeton back on track.

Of course something happened in 1776 that also derailed him a little bit.

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