John McDowell Leavitt (May 10, 1824 – December 12, 1909) was an early Ohio lawyer, Episcopal clergyman, poet, novelist, editor and professor.

[6] Leavitt taught at Kenyon College and Ohio University, which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and where he served successively as professor of mathematics and later of languages.

Leavitt served briefly as a rector, at St James Episcopal Church in Zanesville, Ohio during his tenure as a Kenyon College professor.

On September 1, 1875, he was named president of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1865 as a four-year technical college.

Leavitt was estranged from the faculty almost from the beginning, Yates writes: "A zeal for reform and a lack of tact in proposing it disturbed the professors, who by the time of his appointment were entrenched in their control of several departments."

On top of the fractious relations with his faculty, Leavitt also found himself serving during a "severe economic depression."

Within five years, after the enrollment at Lehigh dropped precipitously, Leavitt left for St. John's College, where he was named president of the Annapolis, Maryland, institution in 1880.

[10] But once again Leavitt's tenure was rocky, and marked by another difficult financial situation, prompted by the withdrawal of an appropriation by the Maryland legislature.

[11] Leavitt also published 11 volumes of poetry, several novels and many works of non-fiction on subjects ranging from church history to philosophy.

At a sermon at the First Reformed Episcopal Church, located on Madison Avenue and 51st Street in New York City, in October 1889, Leavitt spoke out.