Reverend Reuben Andrus, D.D. was born in Rutland, New York on January 29, 1824. In 1841 he entered an academy in Canton, Illinois, and in the fall of 1843 he became a student in the Illinois College. Affairs at home compelled him to leave the following spring. He resumed his place the following September. The college course continued only a little further when it was interrupted by the death of his father, Reuben Andrus, Sr., September 1, 1845. In September 1846, he returned to the college and continued in uninterrupted work until admitted into the senior class of 1848. He graduated with the senior class of 1849. At the Illinois Methodist Conference in Bloomington, 1850, he was admitted on trial as a preacher. In 1872, Dr. Andrus was elected fifth president of Indiana Asbury University, now DePauw University, as successor of Reverend Thomas Bowman, D.D. This position he retained until July 1875 when he resigned and returned to the regular work of the itinerant ministry. Due to his failing health, he died at the age of 63 at his home in Indianapolis on the morning January 17, 1887.