Robert Lowry, born March 12, 1826, graduated in 1854 from the University of Lewisburg (Bucknell University) and became a baptist minister in West Chester, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Brooklyn before rejoining Lewisburg in 1869 as a faculty member and then its chancellor. From 1875 to 1885 he was Pastor to Park Avenue Baptist Church, and from 1880 to 1886 President of the New Jersey Baptist School Union. He composed many hymns, among which the popular "Beautiful River" has survived. Married, with three sons, he died in Plainfield, New Jersey, on November 23, 1899.