Mount Union College - Unonian Yearbook (Alliance, OH)

Page 20 text:

REV. ALBERT B. RIKER, A. M,, D, D,, Prgsz'denf-Elegg,

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Clgev. Qiflierf . Qlilier, ifiQYI.fQ. INCE THE RESIGNATION of President Marsh, last commencement, the committees of supervision and of the Board of Trustees have been diligently seeking for the right man to succeed him. Many excellent names were suggested, among them the Rev. A. B. Riker, D. D., of Charleston, W. Va. At a joint meeting of the committees of supervision and the Board of Trustees held April 5, 1898, Dr. Riker was duly nominated and elected. Dr. Riker is forty-five years old and was born in Ohio. His father was a member of the Ohio Conference. The Doctor taught in the public schools of his native state for four years, thus earning enough money to pay his way through Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1879. He took the degree of M. A. in 1883. At the next session of the Ohio Conference after his grad- uation he was admitted to membership in that body, and sent to Worthington. In 1881 he was stationed at Third Street Church, Columbus, where he achieved great success, and in 1885 he was appointed to Athens, where like pros- perity attended his labors. In each of these places he re- mained the full time allowed by the law of the church. At Athens the Ohio State University conferred on him the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity, of its own motion. He was transferred to the Holston Conference in the autumn of 1887, and stationed at First Church, Chatta- nooga, from which charge he was called at the end of four years, greatly to the regret of the people there, to Fourth Street Church, Wheeling, W. Va., where he served the full term of tive years. In both of these charges great revivals I9 attended his ministry, and the churches were strength- ened in every respect. Neither of them has ever had a greater period of prosperity than that attained under his ministry. From Wheeling he went to Charleston, the capital of VVest Virginia, and is now in the second year of a successful pastorate there. While in the Ohio Conference he was associated with Drs. S. A. Keen and J. C. jackson, Ir., in the manage- ment of the Ohio Conference camp-meeting. He was active also in the founding of the Lake Wildwood camp-meeting in the Holston Conference. The West Virginia Confer- ence camp-meeting, which is a Chautauqua, a Sunday school assembly and a camp-meeting combined, was originated by Dr, Riker, and he is now its president and head. Dr. Riker is in the prime of a vigorous physical and intellectual manhood. He has great fertility of resources, energy, perseverance, executive ability and powers of en- durance. He is restless unless at work, and never satis- fied except with success. His social qualities are very fine, and he is always a delightful companion, easily approachable, and bright and entertaining in conversation. He is a natural teacher, with several years of practi- cal experience. He has few superiors on the platform, and is a power in the pulpit. His spine is strongly articulated, and this will always' send its mandates by way of the heart. He knows men, and is a safe and trusted leader.