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Edward Courtenay was born on 19 November 1803 in Baltimore, Maryland. His youth was distinguished by remarkably precocious academic performance. Entering the United States Military Academy in 1818 as the youngest cadet to enter since its founding in 1802, he graduated at the head of his class after only three years (the course usually took four). He was immediately appointed to a teaching post at his alma mater. During the next few years, he held a number of assistant professorial positions, before obtaining the professorship of natural and experimental philosophy in February 1829. While in this position, which primarily involved teaching applied mathematics to engineers, he published An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1833), a translation of a work in French by Jean-Louis Boucharlat.
In 1834, Courtenay was offered and accepted the chair of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania. He held this post for two years before making a career change; he became a professional engineer. Working first for the New York and Erie Railroad, he next served as a civil engineer at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor between 1837 and 1841 and finally took over as chief engineer of the Dry Dock Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. After less than a year in the latter position, he re-entered academe, taking the chair of mathematics at the University of Virginia that Sylvester's hasty and unexpected departure had left vacant. Courtenay's tenure at Virginia was, in contrast to that of his predecessor, a resounding success. He was described as a model professor: "He never by look, act, word, or emphasis disparaged the efforts or undervalued the acquirements of his pupils. His pleasant smile and kind voice, when he would say, 'Is that answer perfectly correct?' gave hope to many minds struggling with science" [1, vi-vii]. His premature death on 21 December 1853 thus came as a great shock to colleagues and students alike. Courtenay left as his principal scientific legacy A Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus, and on the Calculus of Variations (1855), the manuscript of which was largely complete at the time of his death. This book ran to several editions over the next twenty years and was in its day the most comprehensive American work on the subject. The University acknowledged Courtenay's contributions by naming a dormitory in the Alderman Road complex in his honor. Selected References
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