Rev. Andrew Van Vranken Raymond, D. D., LL. D, president of Union University, Schenectady, was born at Vischer's Ferry, Saratoga County, N. Y., August 8, 1854, son of the Rev. Henry Augustus and Catharine M. Raymond. On the paternal side he is descended from a long line of American ancestors of English origin, the first of whom crossed the Atlantic in 1629. The grandfather was Clapp Raymond, a native of Norwalk, Conn.
The Rev. Henry Augustus Raymond, the father, was born in Patterson, Putnam County, N. Y., May 30, 1804. He was graduated at Yale University with the class of 1825; and, entering the ministry, he labored in the Dutch Reformed churches in New York State during the greater part of his active period.
Andrew Van Vranken Raymond completed the regular course of study at the Troy High School in 1871, was graduated from Union College in 1875, and from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1878. His initial call was to the First Reformed Church in Paterson, N. J., where he remained from 1878 to 1881. He occupied the pulpit of Trinity Reformed Church, Plainfield, N.J., for the succeeding six years; and, accepting a call to the pastorate of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Albany, he labored in that city for seven years, or until 1894. He was the ninth pastor of that church, and the fifth occupant of its pulpit to be selected for college work, having been chosen president of Union University in 1894. He was honored by his Alma Mater with the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1887 and by Williams College with that of Doctor of Laws in 1894. He was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of New York in 1891; was a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church for the years 1888, 1891, and 1893. He belongs to the Phi Beta Kappa and the Alpha Delta Phi Societies.