William Orcutt Cushing (31 December 1823 – 19 October 1902) was an American Unitarian minister and hymn writer from Hingham, Massachusetts.

[1] When he was a teenager and started to read The Bible alone, he became a follower of the Orthodox Christian school of thought.

He once gave all of his life savings of $1,000 (approximately $18,400 in 2013) to a blind girl in order for her to receive an education.

In the same year, Cushing wrote his first hymn, "When he Cometh",[2] based on Malachi 3:17, for children in his Sunday School.

Shortly afterwards, Cushing suffered from a "creeping paralysis" that caused him to lose his voice, requiring him to retire from the ministry after 27 years in it.