William Greenleaf Eliot
| William Greenleaf Eliot | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis | |
|
In office 1870–1887 |
|
| Preceded by | Abram Litton |
| Succeeded by | Marshall Snow |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 5, 1811 New Bedford, Massachusetts |
| Died | January 23, 1887 (aged 75) Pass Christian, Mississippi |
| Alma mater | George Washington University |
William Greenleaf Eliot (August 5, 1811 – January 23, 1887) was an American educator, Unitarian minister, and civic leader in Missouri. He is most notable for founding Washington University in St. Louis, but also contributed to the founding of numerous other civic institutions, such as the St. Louis Art Museum, public school system, and charitable institutions. The modernist poet T. S. Eliot was his grandson.
Eliot was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. After attending the Friends Academy in New Bedford, Eliot attended Columbian College (now the George Washington University) in Washington, D.C., and graduated in 1831. Eliot did graduate work at Harvard Divinity School and graduated in 1834. He was ordained a minister of the Unitarian church on August 17, 1834.
After his ordination, Eliot moved to St. Louis, where he lived for the rest of his life, until 1887. There he founded the Church of the Messiah, the first Unitarian church west of the Mississippi River. Today it is called the First Unitarian Church of Saint Louis. He led the congregation from 1834 to 1870, through a period of rapid expansion of the city.
Eliot was active in civic life, and instrumental in founding many civic institutions, including the St. Louis Public Schools, the St. Louis Art Museum, Mission Free School, South Side Day Nursery, and the Western Sanitary Commission to provide medical care and supplies during the Civil War. In 1861 he was part of a small group of men who helped Generals Nathaniel Lyon and Francis P. Blair to retain Missouri in the Union. He contributed to the development of the Colored Orphans' Home, Soldiers' Orphans' Home, Memorial Home, Blind Girls' Home, Women's Christian Home, and other charitable institutions. When Ralph Waldo Emerson visited St. Louis, he had met Eliot and called him "the Saint of the West."
...
Wikipedia