Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who cofounded Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college curricula. A politician, he had served as state senator in New York. He was later appointed as an American diplomat to Germany and Russia, among other responsibilities. He was one of the founders of the conflict thesis, which states that science and religion have historically been in conflict, and tried to prove it over the course of approximately 800 pages in his History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. Early life and education Andrew Dickson White was born on November 7, 1832, in Homer, New York, to Clara (née Dickson) and Horace White. Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Assemblyman in 1832 and his wife; and Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts, and his wife. Their once-successful farm was ruined by a fire when Horace was 13.