Alexander, Stephen, Lld

Alexander, Stephen, LL.D.

a Presbyterian minister, was born at Schenectady, N.Y., September 1, 1806. He graduated from Union College in 1824, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1832, when he became a tutor in Princeton College, and in 1834, professor of mathematics, astronomy, and mechanical philosophy, and was connected with the college for upwards of fifty years. Professor Alexander, in 1860, went to the coast of Labrador, at the head of a government astronomical expedition, to observe the eclipse of July 18. In 1869 he was at the head of an expedition to the Rocky Mountains to observe the solar eclipse of that year. He was the author of numerous papers on astronomy and mathematics, which attracted much attention in this country and in Europe. He was one of the founders of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Philosophical Association, of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was president.

He was a devout Christian, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. His old age passed away in the quiet study of the stars, his favorite pursuit. He died at Princeton, N.J., June 26, 1883. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Alumni, 1884, page 16; Nevin, Presb. Emncyclop. s.v. (W.P.S.)