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Francis Alison, the father of higher education in the middle colonies, founded the institution that is now the University of Delaware. A Scotch-Irishman, born in County Donegal in Northern Ireland in 1705, he earned a Master of Arts degree at Edinburgh University in Scotland and was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry.

In 1735, he joined the thousands of Scotch-Irish people immigrating to the Delaware River Valley to escape economic distress at home. Two years later he was appointed to lead the Presbyterian congregation at New London, Pennsylvania. There, in 1743, with the blessing and financial support of the synod of Philadelphia, he founded a school for boys.

Alison’s first class was a most remarkable one, possibly the most distinguished in terms of the later achievements of its members—taken as a whole—of any class in any school in America. Some became distinguished statesmen—governors, congressmen, doctors, merchants and scholars of reputation. Signers of the Declaration of Independence included George Read, Thomas McKean and James Smith; Read also signed the Constitution.

In 1751, Alison left New London to assist in the creation of the Academy of Philadelphia, a brainchild of Benjamin Franklin, which was modeled on Alison's successful school in New London.

Alison left his first school in the good hands of his chosen successor, Alexander McDowell, another Presbyterian clergyman, who moved the school to Newark, Del., in about 1760. In 1769 the school was chartered as the Academy of Newark. The University of Delaware grew from that institution.

Feb. 5, 2002