Background
In 1870, William Marion Runyan was born in Marion, New York to a Methodist minister Review William White Runyan (born 1828) and his wife Hannah (Orcutt) Runyan (born 1839).
In 1870, William Marion Runyan was born in Marion, New York to a Methodist minister Review William White Runyan (born 1828) and his wife Hannah (Orcutt) Runyan (born 1839).
As a youth, Runyan served as a church organist and graduated from Marion High School in Kansas. Runyan attended Northwestern University for three years from 1895 to 1898.
At age fourteen, Runyan and his family moved to Marion, Kansas. Runyan was ordained as a Methodist minister at age twenty-one and then pastored various congregations in Kansas. Starting in 1915 Runyan began writing gospel songs with the encouragement of Doctorate.B. Towner of the Moody Bible Institute.
In 1923 Runyan moved from Wichita to Chicago.
From 1924 to 1926 Runyan was affiliated with John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas pastoring the Federated Church, and editing the Christian Workers" Magazine. Runyan then moved back to Chicago where he worked with the Moody Bible Institute, and he worked as editor for Hope Publishing Company, co-editing "The Service Hymnal" with Gordon Shorney.
Runyan retired from Hope in 1948 and received the honorary Doctor of Letters from Wheaton College. Runyan lived for a period of his retirement in Galveston, Texas and died on July 29, 1957 in Pittsburg, Kansas.
He is buried in Baldwin City, Kansas.
Runyan"s survivors endowed the "The Review Runyan Endowed Memorial Scholarship" at Baker University with the royalties from his song "Great is Thy Faithfulness.".