R. A. Torrey

Reuben Archer Torrey
Evangelist, pastor, and writer
Born	28 January 1856 Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	26 October 1928 Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.
Nationality	American

Reuben Archer Torrey (28 January 1856 – 26 October 1928) was an American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer.

Torrey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on 28 January 1856. He graduated from Yale University in 1875 and Yale Divinity School in 1878. Following graduation, Torrey became a Congregational minister in Garrettsville, Ohio, in 1878. The following year, he married Clara Smith, and the Torreys had five children.

After further studies in theology at Leipzig University and Erlangen University in 1882–1883, Torrey joined Dwight L. Moody in his evangelistic work in Chicago in 1889, and became superintendent of the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute). Five years later, he became pastor of the Chicago Avenue Church (now the Moody Church) in 1894.

In 1898, Torrey served as a chaplain with the YMCA at Camp Chicamauga during the Spanish–American War. Later, during World War I, he performed similar service at Camp Bowie (a POW camp in Texas) and Camp Kearny.

In 1902–1903, he preached in nearly every part of the English-speaking world and with song leader Charles McCallon Alexander conducted revival services in Great Britain from 1903 to 1905. During this period, he also visited China, Japan, Australia, and India. Torrey conducted a similar campaign in American and Canadian cities in 1906–1907. Throughout these campaigns, Torrey used a meeting style that he borrowed from Moody's campaigns of the 1870s. In 1907, he accepted an honorary doctorate from Wheaton College.