George Dod Armstrong

Who was George Dod Armstrong?

George Dod Armstrong was a Presbyterian minister and author born in Mendham, New Jersey. He was one of ten children by Amzi Armstrong, a Presbyterian pastor, and Polly Dod.

George Armstrong graduated from Princeton University in 1832 and then taught school until he entered Union Theological Seminary, Virginia. He became a professor of chemistry and mechanics in 1838 at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia now Washington and Lee University. He taught there with Henry Ruffner and George Dabney. He held this position for thirteen years when he left to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia. He remained here until his death in 1899.

In 1855 his family was nearly destroyed by Yellow Fever losing 3 children and his wife. In 1856 he authored a personal account of the epidemic: The Summer of the Pestilence.