FISK, PLINY: American Congregationalist, mis sionary in Syria; b. at Shelburne, Mass., June 24, 1792; d. at Beirut, Syria, Oct. 23, 1825. He was graduated from Middlebury College in 1814 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1818, and with Levi Parsons (q.v.) was appointed by the Amer ican Board to the Palestine mission in Sept., 1818. After traveling in the South for a year, raising funds for the cause of missions, he sailed from Boston for The Nov. 3, 1819, accompanied by Parsons During the next five years he traveled extensively in Greece, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, learning languages, particularly Greek and Arabic, and dis tributing tracts and Bibles. In May, 1825, he joined the mission at Beirut. He preached in Italian, French, Greek, and Arabic, published a number of papers in the Missionary Herald, and on the day before his death completed an ~ng~ish Arabic dictionary.

Bibliography: A. Bond, Memoir of P. Flak, Boston, 1828; R. Anderson, IlietorV of the MiSei°m of the Ann Board, Oriental Missions, vol. ii., ib. 1872.

FISK, WILBUR: First president of Wesleyan University (Corm.); b. in Brattleboro, Vt., Aug. 31, 1792; d. at Middletown, Conn., Feb. 2, 1839. After his graduation from Brown University (1815) he studied law, but became an itinerant minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1818. He held pastorates at Craftsbury, Vt., and Charlestown, Mass., and was presiding elder of the Vermont dis trict 1823-27, when he was placed upon the super annuated list. For a time he was agent of the New market (N. H.) Academy, where he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was chaplain of the Vermont legislature in 1826 principal of the Wesleyan Academy at Wil braham, Mass., 1826-31, and president of Wesleyan University 1831-39. He had aided materially in the organization of the university, and under his direction it became the most influential educational institution of the Methodist denomination in Amer ica. While traveling in Europe in 1836 he was elected bishop, but declined the office. In 1828 he had declined the bishopric of the Canada con ference. Besides occasional sermons and lectures, he published The Science of Education (Middletown, 1831; New York, 1832), the inaugural address on the opening of We The Calvin istic Controversy (New York, 1837); and Travels in Europe (1838).

Bibliography: J. Holdich,Life of W Fisk, New York, 1842; D. D. Whedon, A Tribute to the Memory of Presi dens Fisk, i. 1839.