William Marion Runyan

1870-1957


William M. Runyan (1870-1957)

Born: Jan­u­a­ry 21, 1870, Mar­i­on, New York.

Died: Ju­ly 29, 1957, Pitts­burg, Kan­sas.

Buried: Bald­win Ci­ty, Kan­sas.
William M. Runyan (1870-1957)

Runyan was the son of a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter. He showed an in­ter­est in mu­sic when very young, and by age 12 oft­en served as church or­gan­ist. He be­came a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter at 21, and held var­i­ous pas­tor­ates in Kan­sas, 1891-1903. He was ap­point­ed evan­gel­ist for the Cent­ral Kan­sas Meth­od­ist Con­fer­ence, and served for some 20 years.

Runyan wrote his first Gos­pel song in 1915 and was great­ly en­cour­aged by Dan­iel Town­er of Moody Bi­ble In­sti­tute. In 1924, Run­yan went to John Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty, Si­lo­am Springs, Ar­kan­sas, and served as pas­tor of the Fed­er­at­ed Church, and ed­it­or of the Christ­ian Work­ers’ Mag­a­zine. Mov­ing to Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, he was as­so­ci­at­ed with the Moody Bi­ble In­sti­tute, and served as ed­it­or for Hope Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny un­til his re­tire­ment in 1948. He re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Let­ters from Wheat­on Coll­ege, Il­li­nois, in 1948. His works in­clude:

Sources

Music

  1. Gates Will Open Wide, The (© 1925)
  2. Faithfulness
  3. What God Hath Promised
  4. Processional
  5. Runyan

Hymns

  1. Again He’ll Come
  2. I Sing of a Savior (© 1924)
  3. If We Brightly Shine
  4. In the Hollow of His Hand (© 1929)
  5. King’s Treasures, The
  6. Like as a Mother Comforteth
  7. Lord, I Have Shut the Door (© 1923)
  8. Loud from the Mountaintop (© 1925)
  9. More Precious to Me (© 1925)
  10. Savior for Me, The
  11. To Thy Temple Ho­ly

09/08/2007 19:45:24