Elizur Wright

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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.

Contents 1 Mathematics career 2 Abolishionist 3 Public parks 4 External links

[edit] Mathematics career

In 1829 he became Professor of Mathematics at Western Reserve College in Ohio. 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 the mathematics for calculating life insurance premiums. He campaigned for valuation laws requiring life insurance companies to hold sufficient reserves to guarantee that benefits would be paid, and nonforfeiture laws requiring the companies to provide cash surrender values. He also served as state commissioner of insurance for Massachusetts, from 1858 to 1866.^[1]

He invented a form of cylindrical slide rule.

[edit] Abolishionist

In 1833 he was appointed secretary to the American Anti-Slavery Society and became 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."

[edit] Public parks

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.

[edit] External links

• Works by Elizur Wright at Project Gutenberg
  • The Fables of La Fontaine, translated by Elizur Wright; Project Gutenberg text.
• Cambridge Sketches by Frank Preston Stearns; has a section on Elizur Wright.
• Actuary Hall of Fame contains a brief account of Wright's life.