Henry Durant

Henry Durant ( born June 18, 1802 in Acton, Massachusetts, † January 22, 1875 in Oakland, California ) was an American theologian and university lecturer.

Life

After attending Phillips Academy in Andover and the Theological Seminary where he took his degree in 1827 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. During his studies he gained teaching experience as a tutor. After graduating he worked for 16 years pastor of the Congregational Church in Byfield, today a district of Newbury in Essex County.

After leaving the church service he was there from 1849 to 1852 Head of the Dummer Academy, which is known as The Governor's Academy today. Durant was married to Mary E. Buffett of Stanwich, Connecticut, with whom he had a daughter. After her death, the move was to California, which had been annexed in 1850 after the Mexican War of the United States.

Durant reached San Francisco on May 1, 1853, and founded on June 6, 1853, the Contra Costa Academy in Oakland as a private boys' school. From this, the College of California was founded in April 1855. He participated in the following years to the creation of the University of California, the first of which he was president from 1870 by 1872. After that, he was until his death the mayor of Oakland.