Our History/Namesake

 

ANDERSON, WILLIAM MADISON (1889–1935). William Madison Anderson, clergyman, son of William M. and Sarah Knott (Latta) Anderson, was born on September 29, 1889, at Rock Hill, South Carolina. He attended Vanderbilt University from 1907 to 1910, then moved to Texas and attended Austin College, where he received his A.B. degree in 1911. In 1914 he graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, and was named pastor of East Dallas Presbyterian Church.

·         In 1915 he served as secretary of schools and colleges of the Presbyterian Church in Texas. On October 23, 1916, he married Nancy Lee Gossett; they had two daughters. Anderson became associated with his father as assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas and on his father's death in 1924 assumed the pastorate.

·         In 1924 Austin College conferred on him an honorary doctorate. Anderson was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, a thirty-second-degree Mason, and a Shriner. He organized the Evangelical Theological College of Dallas and founded a Presbyterian charity clinic for babies in Dallas. He died on November 11, 1935.   The school board of the Dallas Independent School District voted to name the school for him in 1957.