Founder of Thayer School Elected to Hall of Fame

General Sylvanus Thayer, Dartmouth 1807, founder of the Thayer School of Engineering and "Father of the United States Military Academy" at West Point, was one of four persons elected in October for permanent enshrinement in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University.

The others elected from 225 nominees were social worker Jane Addams, jurist Olville Wendell Holmes Jr., and inventor Orville Wright. A majority of votes by the 124 members of the College of Electors was required for election. To date, 88 great Americans have been immortalized in the Hall of Fame. Original bronze busts by distinguished American sculptors line a quartermile open-air colonnade at NYU's University Heights campus.

Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872) transformed West Point from a weak military school into a respected academic institution during the 16 years that he was Superintendent from 1817 to 1833, and made it a model for other military and technical schools. In addition to founding Dartmouth's Thayer School he also endowed an academy in his native town of Braintree, Mass.