Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight V was born on November 16, 1828, in Norwich, Connecticut.

He was an academic, educator, Congregational minister, and president of Yale College. He received his B.A. degree (1849) and M.A. degree (1852) from Yale’s Theological Department. He worked as a tutor in the College from 1851 to 1855, and then went abroad to continue his studies at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He returned to America in 1858 and became a professor of sacred literature at Yale College. In 1869, Chicago Theological Seminary conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity upon him, and Yale honoured him with a similar degree in 1886. The same year he was elected president of Yale College (1886–1898). One of the first acts he proposed was the change of name to Yale University in 1887. Dwight was a member of the American committee for the revision of the English version of the Bible, and for several years he was one of the editors of the New Englander. He was the author of "Thoughts of and for the Inner Life" (1899) and "Memories of Yale Life and Men, 1845-1899" (1903).

In 1866, he married Jane Wakeman Skinner (1832–1919). He died on May 26, 1916, in New Haven, Connecticut.