William Howard Doane

William Howard Doane was an American Baptist lay leader, composer, hymnal editor, industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist. Born at Preston, Connecticut, on February 3, 1832, he was educated at Woodstock Academy and spent his principal professional career in manufacturing rather than church music. He rose to leadership in J. A. Fay & Company in Cincinnati, a major woodworking-machinery concern, while also becoming active in civic and religious life.

Music remained an avocation, but Doane's output was exceptional. Hymnary credits him with more than 2,200 hymn and gospel-song tunes and with editing more than forty songbooks. He collaborated repeatedly with Robert Lowry and became one of the most important musical partners of Fanny J. Crosby. Tunes associated with his work include settings for Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior; Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross; Safe in the Arms of Jesus; Rescue the Perishing; and I Am Thine, O Lord. His collections included Silver Spray, Songs of Devotion, Pure Gold, and other Sunday-school and evangelistic songbooks.

Doane also served for many years in Baptist congregational life, including Sunday-school and music leadership in Cincinnati. His business career produced more than seventy patents connected with woodworking machinery, while his philanthropy supported Denison University, Moody Bible Institute, and other educational and religious institutions. Denison honored him with an honorary doctorate, and his gifts helped shape the university's facilities and programs.

He died at South Orange, New Jersey, on December 24, 1915. His legacy joins industrial achievement with the characteristic sound of nineteenth-century American gospel song.