William Porcher DuBose (April 11, 1836 – August 18, 1918) was an American priest and theologian in the Episcopal Church in the United States. He spent most of his career as a professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He is remembered on August 18 on the Episcopal Calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts. His middle name, Porcher, is French and pronounced as if it were spelled por-shay.
In 1836, William Porcher DuBose was born near Winnsboro, South Carolina into a wealthy family descended from French Huguenots who had immigrated as refugees in 1686 and settled in the Midlands of South Carolina. He grew up on the 2,500-acre (10 km2) family plantation near Winnsboro; his parents were planters and major slaveholders. DuBose began his education at Mount Zion College, a kind of seminary or male academy in Winnsboro.
From there, at age 15, DuBose entered the South Carolina Military Academy, now The Citadel, in 1851. By his final year (1855), he was the ranking officer and the Assistant Professor of English. He graduated from The Citadel in 1855. At The Citadel DuBose had what he described as his "conversion experience." He wrote:
I lept to my feet trembling, and then that happened that I can only describe by saying that a light shone about me and a Presence filled the room. At the same time, ineffable joy and peace took possession of me which it is impossible to either express or explain.
In 1856, DuBose entered the University of Virginia. He graduated from that institution with a Master of Arts in 1859. Later that same year, he entered the South Carolina diocesan seminary in Camden, South Carolina. During the period, the American Civil War broke out.