John Davis Pierce
Michigan public schools advocate and administrator
Died when: 85 years 46 days (1021 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
John Davis Pierce (February 18, 1797 – April 5, 1882) was a Congregationalist minister, public schools advocate, and Michigan legislator.He was Michigan's first superintendent of public schools, a position new to the United States, where he established Michigan's public school system.
His work has been compared to that of Horace Mann's.Before his public service career, he attended Brown University and Princeton Theological Seminary, and became an ordained minister of the Congregational Church.
When he moved to Michigan as a missionary, he became involved in Michigan politics and ultimately designed the state's public school system as part of their organization for statehood.
After his superintendency, he was elected to the state legislature and served on Michigan's 1850 constitutional convention before retiring to his farm outside Ypsilanti for the last thirty years of his life.