Rev. Dr. John Joseph Robinson was born in Washington, Georgia in 1822. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1845 and went on to Union Seminary where he graduated in 1849. He was married three times; the first marriage to Margaret Ann Temple resulted in two sons, both of whom died in childhood. His second marriage to Margaret Ann Wallace bore a daughter who was raised by an aunt following the death of her mother. His third marriage was to Mary Alice Platt who outlived him, though they never had children. Shortly after his graduation, he was appointed by the Presbyterian Synod as the professor of sacred literature for Maryville College in 1850. He remained as a professor until the death of the school’s founder, Rev. Isaac Anderson, in 1857; following this, he was elected by the synod as the second college president. Robinson came into his presidency during a time of great social and economic uncertainty, a factor that likely contributed to his decision to shut down the school when predictions of a civil war arose in 1861. On April 22, 1861, Robinson shut down the school on account of the brewing civil war. He then fled to Rogersville, Tennessee where he was a minister in a local church as well as the head of an all-girl’s school. There is evidence to support that he also served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army during the war. Following the war, he moved to Eufaula, Alabama where he would work as a minister for the next thirteen years. He served in many churches throughout the rest of his life including in Atlanta, Rome, Roswell, Lexington, and Jacksonville Florida. He suffered a stroke c. 1892 and spent the last two years of his life in Atlanta Georgia before his death in 1894.