David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 - September 19, 1931) was a leading ichthyologist, educator, and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.
Born into a farm family of Gainesville, New York, he entered the newly-established Cornell University in 1866, and received a master's degree in 1872. He then acquired an MD from Indiana Medical College (1875) and Ph.D from Butler University in 1878, taking up a professorship in science at Indiana University the following year.
He was appointed president of the university on January 1, 1885, and then went to Stanford in 1891 to become its first president, later becoming its chancellor in 1913, in order to have more time available for his peace activities (a new trustee by the name of Herbert Hoover helped arrange this). Jordan retired in 1916.
He assisted the United States Fish Commission from 1877 to 1891, and was president of the California Academy of Sciences from 1896 to 1904 and after 1908. He was also president of the World Peace Foundation from 1910 to 1914 and chaired the World Peace Conference in 1915.
Jordan was an extremely prolific writer, with 650 articles and books on ichthyology alone, and 1,400 other works.
The NOAA research vessel David Starr Jordan is named in his honor, as is the David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles, California.
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