Stephen Olin was an American educator and minister. He graduated Middlebury College

Middlebury College

Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

 in 1820 and was ordained into the Methodist Episcopal Church

Methodist Episcopal Church

The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...

 while teaching at the Tabernacle Academy in South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 and served a pastorate in Charleston. He became professor of belle-lettres at the University of Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

 in 1827. He was the first President of Randolph Macon College (1834–1837) and later was president of Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

(1839–1851).

In 1844, at the general conference of the Methodists, Olin called on his friend, Bishop James Andrew, to resign his office, on the grounds the latter owned slaves. Olin himself was criticized because his first wife (Mary E. Bostwick, whom he married in 1827) had owned slaves.

Publications

Travels in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land 1844 Harper, New York.

Early piety, the basis of elevated character: a discourse to the graduating class of Wesleyan University 1851 Lane & Scott.

The Works of Stephen Olin (1852) and Greece and the Golden Horn (1854) were edited by his second wife, Julia Matilda Olin, and published posthumously.

College Life: Its Theory and Practice 1867, Harper, New York.

The Bronx, New York neighborhood of Olinville, began as two towns named for him (founded in 1852).