Elizur Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elizur Wright (12 February 1804-22 November 1885) was an American mathematician and abolitionist. He is sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables.

In 1829, he became Professor of Mathematics at Western Reserve College in Ohio. In 1833 he was appointed secretary to the American Anti-Slavery Society and was an important abolitionist. In 1838 he published a translation of The Fables of La Fontaine. He edited a number of Boston newspapers including, from 1846 to 1852, the strongly anti-slavery "Boston Weekly Chronotype."

According to Frank Preston Stearns, he became interested in life insurance as a mathematical study and read "the best works on life insurance ... with the same ardor with which young ladies devour an exciting novel." In the spring of 1852 an insurance broker "placed an advertising booklet in his hand... Elizur Wright looked it over and perceived quickly enough that no company could undertake to do what this one pretended to and remain solvent. The booklet served him for an editorial," and he embarked on a successful crusade to reform the insurance industry.

He developed actuarial tables and mathematics for calculating life insurance premium. He campaigned for laws that required life insurance companies to hold sufficient reserves to guarantee that policies would be paid, and served as state commissioner of insurance.

He invented a form of cylindrical slide rule.

He initiated and promoted plans for making Middlesex Fells, an area north of Boston bordering Malden and Melrose, into a public park; although he did not succeed during his lifetime, the plan was carried out later and Middlesex Fells is an MDC reservation to this day.