Rev. George Edmond Pierce (September 9, 1794 – May 27, 1871) was an American minister and the second President of Western Reserve College, now Case Western Reserve University. Pierce was born in Southbury, Conn, September 9, 1794. His father was Samuel Pierce, and his mother Martha, daughter of Robert Edmond, from Ireland. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1816. After graduation, he taught in Fairfield (Conn.) Academy for two years, and was for the next three years a member of

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambridge. ...

. He was ordained pastor of the

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

Church in Harwinton, Conn., July 10, 1822, and continued so until June 1834, when he was dismissed to accept the Presidency of the Western Reserve College, in

Hudson, Ohio Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,110 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community in the Akron metropolitan statistical area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, t ...

. He entered on his new duties in the next month, and remained in office twenty one years. In 1843, Pierce began the Medical Department of Western Reserve College, known today as the

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Case Western Reserve School of Medicine (CWRU SOM, CaseMed) is the medical school of Case Western Reserve University, a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the largest biomedical research center in Ohio. History On November ...

. After his resignation his residence continued in Hudson, till his sudden death, May 27, 1871. Dr. Pierce was married, December 1, 1824, to Miss Susan Rockwell, daughter of Martin Rockwell, of Colebrook, Conn., who survived him. They had five sons and one daughter: one son died in infancy, and three of the other sons graduated at Western Reserve College. Dr. Pierce received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury College in 1838.

External links

Case Western Reserve University bio
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierce, George Edmond 1794 births 1871 deaths Case Western Reserve University faculty People from Southbury, Connecticut American Congregationalist ministers Yale College alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni Presidents of Case Western Reserve University 19th-century American clergy