Stephen Van Rensselaer
Stephen Van Rensselaer III (November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839) was Lieutenant Governor of New York as well as a statesman, soldier, and land-owner, the heir to one of the largest estates in the New York region at the time, which made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP. This figure was put at $68 billion, which also makes him the twenty-second richest person in history. He founded the institution which became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Read more about Stephen Van Rensselaer: Early Life, Politics and The War of 1812, Later Life, Family
Famous quotes containing the words van and/or rensselaer:
“To be is to be the value of a variable.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Let us shun self-analyzation, self-consciousness, morbidness, affectation, attitudinizing. Let us look ahead as little as possible, keeping our eyes on our brushes and on the world of beauty around us.”
—Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (1851–1934)