San Francisco County Biographies

CHARLES GORDON PATERSON, B. A.

Submitted by: Pamela Storm Wolfskill & Ron Filion

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
San Francisco Theological Seminary, 1907

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE FOUNDERS AND PRINCIPAL SUPPORTERS 
OF THE SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

The first Alumnus of the San Francisco Theological Seminary to take part in 
directing its affairs was elected a Director in 1890, just nineteen years after 
the Seminary was organized.  Since then four others have been Directors.  But it 
was thirty-five years before an Alumnus became a member of the Faculty.  This 
was when Rev. Charles G. Paterson was elected, in 1906, California Professor of 
Church History in place of the recently deceased Dr. Alexander.  Mr. Paterson 
was born more than two years after Dr. Alexander became a Professor in the 
Seminary; and so, while Dr. Alexander was teaching all along these thirty-five 
years, Mr. Paterson was growing up and being educated to take his place when he 
ceased from his labors. 
Mr. Paterson was born in Brantford, Ontario, March 16, 1874, and so was but 
thirty-two years old when elected Professor.  His father is a prominent man in 
the Canadian Government, being Minister of Customs for the Dominion of Canada.  
Mr. Paterson graduated from the University of Toronto, with the degree of B.A., 
in 1896, having taken the double-honor course of Modern Languages and Political 
Science.  He was one of the two representatives of the University of Toronto who 
debated successfully against McGill University during his last year in college, 
and the same year he won the gold medal for public speaking.  He took two years 
in theology at Knox College, Toronto, the first in connection with his last year 
in college; came to the United States in June, 1897, and spent three months in 
special study at the University of Chicago.  He then came to San Anselmo for his 
third year in theology, and graduated from the San Francisco Theological 
Seminary in April, 1898.  He served the church at Springville, Utah, 1898; Holly 
Park, San Francisco, 1898-1902; Sausalito and Corte Madera, 1902-03, and is now 
supplying the church recently organized in Berkeley, Cal.  He was elected 
Instructor in Church History in the San Francisco Theological Seminary October 
6, 1903, and Professor in the same department August 14, 1906.  Mr. Paterson�s 
work in the Seminary has been such as to give assurance that he will fill his 
position with much honor and usefulness. 
 
Source:  Curry, James, D.D., History of the San Francisco Theological Seminary 
of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and Its Alumni Association 
Reporter Publishing Company, Vacaville, California, 1907.