Alexander Dimitry

Alexander Dimitry (February 7, 1805 – January 30, 1883) was an American diplomat, linguist and scholar. He worked as a U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.[1]

Biography

Alexander Dimitry the son of Andrea Dimitry (1775 - 1852) and Marie Celeste Dragon (1777 - 1856) was born in New Orleans, February 7, 1805.

His father Andrea Dimitry a native of Greece came to New Orleans in the spring of 1799 was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans. He was also a New Orleans shipping merchant - History of the Order Ahepa - The First Greeks in the New World (Page 16)

His grandmother was a Native American woman from the Alibamon Tribe.

At the age of ten, he was fluent in classical Greek and Latin. He spoke English, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish. He graduated with distinction from Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. In 1842 he established the St. Charles Institute in Louisiana, where he headed as the first state superintendent of public education in 1847. During his period as superintendent (1847–51) he organized public schools of Louisiana. He was appointed in 1854 as translator in the U.S. Department of State, in 1859 he was sent as Minister to Central America by the current president James Buchanan. Many of his writings remains unpublished.[2][3]

He died on January 30, 1883, in New Orleans.[3]

During the American Civil War, he was Postmaster General and Chief of Finance of the Postal Service of the Confederacy.

References
  1. Alexander Dimitry - People - Department History - Office of the Historian
  2. James, John Garland (1879). Southern Student's Hand-book of Selections for Reading and Oratory. A. S. Barnes & Company. p. 87.
  3. Ohles, John F. (1978). Biographical Dictionary of American Educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 379. ISBN 9780313040122.

Alexander Dimitry (History of the Order of AHEPA - The First Greeks in the New World pp. 17-20)


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