Alfred Mordecai

 - 19 January 1920
 

Genealogy:

His father, also Alfred Mordecai (#326; died 1887, age 85), graduated first in the class of 1823 and taught at USMA the next two years. The father was Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, July 1, 1823 to September 1, 1824 and Principal Assistant Professor of Engineering, September 1, 1824 to July 12, 1825. He was also a member of the Board of Visitors in 1843. A southerner by birth, but having had a distinguished army career he felt that he could not fight in the civil war and so resigned in 1861 and retired to his home in Philadelphia to "support his family by teaching mathematics to a few pupils." (Cullum, p. 301).

Three grandsons John David Milley (#5584), William Maynadier Miley (#5992), and Charles Pelot Summerall, Jr. (#7452), as well as one g-grandson, John David Miley (#15998) are all graduates.

Obituaries:

Assembly, April 1920
 

Cullum #01941
B-PA: A-Lge: TopEngrs-Ord: BullRun: Asst Prof Math USMA 61-62: Ord duties 62-65: 2Bvts: Instr Ord & Gun USA 65-69, 74-81: Ret04 BG: D-DC 19Jan20 a-79: Ob-AR 20.  [From 1990 Register of Graduates]

References:

Arney, Chris, West Point's Scientific 200: Celebration of the Bicentennial. Biographies of 200 of West Point's Most Successful and Influential Mathematicians, Scientists, Engineers, and Technologists, 2002.

Falk, Stanley L., "Alfred Mordecai, American Jew," American Jewish Archives 1958 10(2): 125-132. ISSN: 0002-905X.