Henry Jackson van Dyke Jr. (November 10, 1852 – April 10, 1933) was an American author, educator, diplomat, and Presbyterian clergyman.

He was the son of Henry Jackson van Dyke Sr. (1822–1891), a prominent Brooklyn Presbyterian clergyman known in the antebellum years for his anti-abolitionist views.

[2] The family traced its roots to Jan Thomasse van Dijk, who emigrated from Holland to North America in 1652.

Among the many students whom he influenced was, notably, future celebrity travel writer Richard Halliburton (1900–1939), Editor-in-Chief, at the time, of the Princeton Pictorial.

[4] Van Dyke chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906.

By appointment of President Woodrow Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913.

Although inexperienced as an ambassador, van Dyke conducted himself with the skill of a trained diplomat, maintaining the rights of Americans in Europe and organizing work for their relief.

[10] In 2003, the same section of the poem was chosen for a memorial in Grosvenor Square, London, dedicated to British victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.