1752-1817 President Of Yale College

Reformer.

As president of. Yale, Timothy Dwight was not only that college's most influential leader but also one of the young nation's most important educators. During Dwight's twenty-one years at Yale, he found able and inspiring teachers, launched the teaching of science and medicine, planned the creation of schools of law and theology, and gave the faculty and president a central role in running the school.

Restless Energy.

Timothy Dwight was born on 14 May 1752 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dwight's mother, the daughter of theologian Jonathan Edwards, had seen to his early education, and by the age of four he was reading the Bible; at six he taught himself Latin. Dwight had entered Yale at thirteen, and four years later graduated with the highest honors, though he made himself nearly blind in the process. He began teaching, but in 1777 he joined the Continental...