Rev. Donald Harvey MacVicar was born on November 20, 1831, in Lochgilphead, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

He was a Presbyterian minister, educator, and author. In 1835, his family emigrated to Canada. He was educated at the Toronto Academy, the University of Toronto, and Knox College, the theological school of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada (Free Church). In 1859, he was ordained a minister to Knox Church, Guelph. In 1861, he accepted a call to Coté Street Church, Montreal. He served as chairman of the senate and principal of the Presbyterian College of Montreal from 1868 until his death. He was also involved with the schools of the French Canadian Missionary Society. His sermons were occasionally published in the Pulpit Treasury (New York). He contributed material to the Presbyterian College’s Journal (including a “College hymn”), to the Presbyterian Church’s Sunday-school periodical Teacher’s Monthly (Toronto), and to the Presbyterian Quarterly Review (Philadelphia) on a wide range of subjects including missions, education, sociology, and Roman Catholicism. In 1870, MacVicar was awarded an honorary degree of LL.D. from McGill College and in 1883, an honorary degree of D.D. from Knox College.

In 1860, he married Eleanor Goulding (1837–1917). He died on December 15, 1902, in Montreal, Quebec.