French family

Rev. James Leslie French was born on January 3, 1877 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He his A.B. degree from the University of Michigan in 1899 and his M.A. degree in 1900 in the field of Hebrew, Philosophy and Ethics. He graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary in 1902 and was ordained at a meeting of the Grand Rapids Presbytery on July 8, 1902 in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That same year he married Edna F. Cumming of Port Huron, Michigan. He continued his education abroad for three years: at the University of Berlin, the University of Marburg in Germany and the Sorbonne in Paris. He received his Ph.D. from Hartford Theological Seminary in 1905.

From 1905 to 1914, French was a University Pastor for Presbyterian Students at the University of Michigan. During this time he also held an instructorship in the Department of Semitics, teaching Hellenistic Greek and Hebrew, and gave full time to the University in 1913-14 as acting associate professor.

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