Alexander Dimitry
Alexander Dimitry was an American diplomat, linguist and scholar. He worked as a U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.Early life and education
Alexander Dimitry was born in New Orleans, February 7, 1805. He was the son of Andrea Dimitry and Marie Celeste Dragon. His father, Andrea Dimitry, was a native of Greece who came to New Orleans in the spring of 1799 and was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans. He was also a New Orleans shipping merchant. 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.Career
In 1842, he established the St. Charles Institute in Louisiana, which he headed as the first state superintendent of public education in 1847. During this period as superintendent, he organized public schools of Louisiana. The author, Mary Bushnell Williams, was one of his students.
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 president James Buchanan. During the American Civil War, he was Postmaster General and Chief of Finance of the Postal Service of the Confederacy.
He died on January 30, 1883, in New Orleans. Many of Dimitry's writings remain unpublished.
