Rev. Robert Charles Denison, pastor of the United church at New Haven, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, July 22, 1868, a son of George and Emma (Webster) Denison. The father, who was an attorney, has passed away but the mother is still living. She is a native of New Hampshire, while the birth of George Denison occurred in Vermont. In young man-hood he went to the west, becoming a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, and died there in 1899, at the age of sixty-six years. He was a member of the Connecticut Denison family of the Stonington line, descended from Captain George Denison, who removed from Massa-chusetts to Stonington. Connecticut, before the settlement of New Haven and was a prominent man there. The mother of Rev. Denison is a representative of the Webster family of New Hampshire, to which Daniel Webster belonged.

Born and reared in St. Louis, Rev. Robert C. Denison prepared for college in Smith Academy of his native city and afterward entered Amherst College, where he took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1889. He then became a student in the Andover (Mass.) Theolo-gical Seminary and was graduated with the class of 1892. For nearly two years he engaged in settlement work at Andover House in Boston. In 1896 he was ordained to the ministry and for about three years occupied a pastorate in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later he spent over ten years as pastor of a church at Janesville, Wisconsin, and in September, 1909, came to New Haven as pastor of the United church (Congregational), which is the second oldest church in this city, it having been formed by a group who withdrew for the purpose from Center church in 1742. For eight years Rev. Denison has continued as pastor of this church and his labors have been attended with excellent results in the upbuilding of the membership, in the extension of the work and in the deepening of spiritual significance to its representatives. For many years he has been one of the directors of the Young Men's Christian Association and a most active worker in behalf of that organization, realizing fully how strong a safeguard it throws around the youth of the present day. Rev. Denison is also a member of the executive committee of the Red Cross, a member of the Boy Scouts Council, chairman of the Civic Federation Council on industrial and social conditions and otherwise connected with the work which is looking to the uplift of the individual and the betterment of the community at large.

On the 31st of October, 1894, in Alton, Illinois, Rev. Denison was married to Miss Martha Kendrick, a daughter of A. A. Kendrick, president of Shurtleff College of Alton. They have two children, George and Lucia. Rev. Denison belongs to the Graduates Club of New Haven and is also a member of the Chi Psi fraternity. He has confined his activities to the churches with which he has been connected and to community interests and his efforts have been of constantly broadening effect. His words of wisdom have borne fruit in the lives of many who have come under his instruction. He is an earnest speaker, un-tiring in zeal, strong in purpose and with a ready sympathy that enables him to under-stand the frailties of men but also to believe in their possibilities. To reduce to a minimum the former and to develop to the maximum the latter has been his life work and he has not been denied the full harvest of his labors.