Prof. Rev. Willis Judson Beecher was born on April 29, 1838, in Hamden, Vinton County, Ohio.

Born into a family of the pastor of a Home Mission Church, he became a prominent theologian. He graduated from Hamilton College, N.Y. in 1858 as the Valedictorian of the class. For three years he was a teacher in Whitestone Seminary, near Utica, and then he went to Auburn Theological Seminary to take his course in theology. Upon graduation, he became a pastor at Ovid, N. Y., where he remained only two years, accepting a call to become Professor of Moral Science and Belles Letters in Knox College, Galesburg, Ill. He was also a pastor in Galesburg. In 1869, he was called back to Auburn to take the Professorship of Hebrew Language and Literature in the Theological Seminary. He wrote numerous newspaper articles, book reviews, and books. He was invited to prepare many articles for the American Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

He died on May 10, 1912, in Auburn, Cayuga County, New York.