Charles Mills Gayley (February 22, 1858 – July 25, 1932) was a professor of English, the Classics, and Academic Dean of the University of California at Berkeley between the fall of 1889 and July 1932.

Gayley was born in Shanghai to Irish-born American Presbyterian missionaries. In 1862, Charles' father (Rev. Samuel Rankin Gayley) contracted cholera and died. Young Gayley's father was only 34 when he was buried on a hill overlooking the Straits of Pe-chi-li, China. Gayley soon moved to Ireland with his mother, Sarah, where he was educated at Blackheath school and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Charles' stepfather, Rev. Andrew Brown, was pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hollymount, Ireland. Gayley earned his Doctorate at the University of Michigan and briefly served there as an Assistant Professor of English and Latin. While at Michigan, Gayley: (a) composed the Michigan college songs, The Yellow and Blue and Laudes atque Carmina; (b) developed a love of Shakespeare and poetry; (c) studied one year abroad at the University of Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany (focusing on German, medieval European history, and Modern French History); and (c) accepted his call (within ten minutes of receiving it) to teach in California.

At the age of nine, Gayley was sent to Blackheath Proprietary School in London to be schooled, and at sixteen he studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Belfast.[1] He excelled in both English and the classics, and graduated with honours, winning a place at Cambridge University. Gayley planned to study to be a Presbyterian clergyman, like his father and stepfather. The arrival of his great-uncle changed his aspirations, declaring that Charles, as an American citizen, should be educated in the United States. With his mother eventually giving her approval, Gayley left Ireland for the University of Michigan, there to study law. Gayley again excelled in both Latin and Greek, but now he developed a passion for Shakespeare. After attending a performance of Romeo and Juliet, Gayley found the work moved him in a way it had not managed previously, and he took to reading and re-reading the complete works and attending performance after performance. His energies and his abilities were such that in 1878 he was offered the position as Principal at the high school in Muskegon. Within two years Gayley returned to the University of Michigan as a Latin teacher.

In 1904, Gayley, along with Clement Calhoun Young, published The Principles and Progress of English Poetry. The book was published and distributed by the Macmillan Company. In his honor, streets on the UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles campuses are named after him.