Warren Akin Candler (August 23, 1857 – September 25, 1941) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1898.

Candler attended Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, from 1874 to 1877 and was a brother of Epsilon Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order.

As a longtime member of Paine's Board of Trustees, Candler supported the hiring of African Americans to teach, thus helping to create a racially-integrated faculty, unusual in the post-Civil War South.

The Candler brothers combined their influence and resources to win this role for Emory College.

Indeed, Asa wrote a check for $1 million to defray the expenses of moving Emory's campus from Oxford, Georgia, to land he donated in the Druid Hills development, which is now part of Atlanta.

As such he fought for traditional values, forbidding such activities as dramatics clubs and intercollegiate athletics.

In his writings, Candler espoused a paternalistic relationship toward African Americans, and believed that Southern whites had both an obligation to support the education of a "better" class of African American leaders in the South, and to prevent more radical voices from taking the lead in this area.

Candler was a member and later President of the Board of Trustees at the historically black Paine College in Augusta, GA, which opened in 1882 under the auspices of M. E. Church, South.

While not a critic of the American economic system, per se, he did oppose the power of trusts and condemned covetousness in general.

A supporter of the traditional Christian creed, he also sought to mitigate the conflict between science and religion.

Church, South, to establish a rule requiring the retirement of Bishops who had reached the age of seventy-two.

He received many honors and gestures of public affection throughout his Episcopal career, including the gift of a Franklin sedan.

Warren Akin Candler died at his home in Atlanta on September 25, 1941, being buried in a cemetery adjacent to the Emory campus.