Irving Clinton Tomlinson (March 22, 1860 – October 1, 1944) was an American Universalist minister who converted to Christian Science,[1] becoming a practitioner and teacher.

[3][better source needed][4] His father was a Universalist minister, and his mother was a writer who was heavily involved in the church, and one of the founders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

[2] The family moved to Akron, Ohio, where his father was involved with raising funds to build a new Universalist educational institution, and where Tomlinson later went to preparatory school and college.

[9] While a senior, he and his classmates decided to surpass an effort made by the previous year's graduating class, which had been to place a two-ton boulder on the campus, a lasting reminder of them.

Tomlinson and his classmates searched the vicinity and located a syenite boulder on a farm belonging to the industrialist son of Akron's founder, Colonel Simon Perkins.

[12][13] Tomlinson also engaged in philanthropic work and organized a charity in Boston known as "The Mutual Helpers" which focused on helping those living in the tenement-house district, and was very successful.

The man received some benefit, but when Tomlinson was "lauded to the skies by members of [his] congregation" he became embarrassed, writing: Attending the Friday evening testimony meetings at the church, a precursor to the current Wednesday evening testimony meetings, convinced Tomlinson that "there was at least one church carrying out the Master's injunction to heal the sick.

[11][19] Also in 1898, Eddy asked Tomlinson to serve on the Bible Lesson Committee, which prepares the lesson-sermons read in all Christian Science churches.