{{Short description|American educator, astronomer and mathematician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Augustus W. Smith | image = Augustus William Smith.jpg | caption = | order = 4th | title = President of [[Wesleyan University]] | term_start = 1852 | term_end = 1857 | birth_name = Augustus William Smith | birth_date = {{Birth date|1802|5|12}} | birth_place = [[Newport, New York|Newport]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1866|3|26|1802|5|12}} | death_place = [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]], [[Maryland]], United States | predecessor = [[Stephen Olin]] | successor = [[Joseph Cummings]] | other_names = | hometown = | alma_mater = [[Hamilton College (New York)|Hamilton College]] <small>([[A.B.]], 1825)</small> | spouse = {{marriage|Catherine R. Childs|1827}} | children = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = }}
'''Augustus William Smith''' (May 12, 1802 – March 26, 1866) was an American educator, astronomer and [[mathematician]] in the mid-19th century.
Smith was born in [[Newport, New York|Newport]], [[Herkimer County]], New York, May 12, 1802. He attended [[Hamilton College (New York)|Hamilton College]], and graduated in 1825. After college, he began teaching in the [[Methodist]] Oneida conference seminary, in [[Cazenovia, New York]].<ref name="wu">{{citation|url=http://www.wesleyan.edu/175/presrow/augustus_smith.htt |title=Wesleyan University: Celebrating 175 Years. Wesleyan's Fourth President: Augustus W. Smith |publisher=Wesleyan University |access-date=2009-04-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708222003/http://www.wesleyan.edu/175/presrow/augustus_smith.htt |archive-date=2008-07-08 }}.</ref><ref name="ar"/> He became head of Oneida in 1827, the same year in which he married his wife, Catherine R. Childs. While at Oneida, he earned a master's degree from Hamilton.<ref name="ar"/>
At the founding of [[Wesleyan University]] in 1831, Smith was named professor of mathematics and astronomy in Wesleyan, and in 1851, Smith was elected president of the university.<ref name="wu"/> He received two [[Doctor of Laws|LL.D.]] degrees, one in 1850 from [[Centenary College of Louisiana]] and another in the 1850s from Hamilton College.<ref name="ar"/>
Smith left Wesleyan in 1857, and from 1859 to 1866 he was professor of natural philosophy at the [[United States Naval Academy]] at [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]].<ref name="wu"/> In 1860, he was sent on the Labrador Eclipse Expedition, a United States government mission with a group of fellow astronomers to Labrador to observe the annular eclipse of the sun.<ref name="ar">{{citation|title=Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn|edition=3rd|year=1881–1883|publisher=Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqMgAAAAMAAJ|page=xxviii}}.</ref>
Smith was the author of several text books, including [https://books.google.com/books?id=gz0AAAAAYAAJ ''An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics, Embracing the Theory of Statics and Dynamics, and Its Application to Solids and Fluids''].
He died at Annapolis, on March 26, 1866.<ref name="wu"/> One of his daughters, [[Helen Fairchild Smith]], was the head of [[Wells College]] from 1894 to 1905.<ref name="ar"/><ref>{{citation|url=http://www.wells.edu/library/francespage5.htm |title=From Wells to the White House – Biographical Page |publisher=Wells College |date=May 28, 2003 |access-date=2009-04-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528151132/http://www.wells.edu/library/francespage5.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2010 }}.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box|title=[[Wesleyan University|President of Wesleyan University]]|before=[[Stephen Olin]]|years=1852-1857|after=[[Joseph Cummings]]}} {{s-end}}
{{Wesleyan University presidents}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Augustus William}} [[Category:Presidents of Wesleyan University]] [[Category:1802 births]] [[Category:1866 deaths]] [[Category:Hamilton College (New York) alumni]] [[Category:19th-century American mathematicians]] [[Category:Wesleyan University faculty]] [[Category:United States Naval Academy faculty]] [[Category:Cazenovia College]] [[Category:People from Newport, New York]] [[Category:Mathematicians from New York (state)]]