John M. Coulter was a professor of Botany and the eighth president of Indiana University from 1891-1893. He was born in Ningpo, China on November 20, 1851 to Moses Stanley and Caroline E.(Crowe) Coulter. He received his BA (1870), MA (1873), and Ph.D. (1882) from Hanover College. Coulter also received a law degree from Indiana University in 1920 (pro merits). Married to Georgie M. Gaylord in January 1884, they had three children, one son and two daughters.

Coulter's career began as a Botanist for the U.S. Geological Survey in the Rocky Mts. from 1872-1873. He then became a professor of Natural Sciences at Hanover College (1874-1879) and of Biology at Wabash College (1879-1891). After his term at Indiana University, he became President of Lake Forest University (1893-1896) He ended his academic tenure as head of the Department of Botany at the University of Chicago from 1896-1925. Coulter was also a member to the National Academy of Sciences, the Botanical Society of America, American Society of Naturalists, and the President of the American Association of University Professors in 1918. He was an advisor of the Bryce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Yonkers, New York from 1925-1928. In addition, Coulter was the founder and editor of the Botanical Gazette from 1875 until his death on December 23, 1928. He was buried at Warsaw, Indiana.