Baptist minister and educator. Professor at Mercer, Baylor Universities; Pastor in Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and New York.

John Roach Straton was born on April 6, 1875 to Henry Dundas Douglas Straton and Julia Rebecca Carter Straton. He was their third child.

At age 19, he entered Mercer University. Three years later, he became Professor of Oratory and Interpretation of Literature. He then attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1900, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. He also studied at the University of Chicago, Boston School of Oratory and Expression, and Shurtleff College. He earned a Doctor of Divinity in 1906 from Shurtleff.

Straton furthermore served on faculty at Baylor University. Afterward, he pastored the Second Baptist Church in Chicago, then for five years served at the Seventh Immanuel Church in Baltimore. He served at First Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia in 1913-1917. In 1918, he arrived at the Calvary Baptist Church in New York. He remained at Calvary Baptist until his death. Straton participated in evolution debates, the 1928-1929 presidential campaign against Smith, and the promotion of Uldine Utley.

He married Georgia Hillyer Straton on November 2, 1903. They had four sons, Hillyer Hawthorne Straton, John Charles Straton, Warren Badenock Straton, and George Douglas Straton. One daughter, Catherine Straton, died at a young age. John Roach Straton died of a heart attack in 1929 at age 54.