Did you know…5 famous Anglican Scientists?

1.  Margaret Mead – A cultural anthropologist and well-known writer and speaker.  Wrote the controversial book Coming of Age in Samoa.  A devout Anglo-catholic she once said “What I wanted was a form of religion that gave expression to an already existing faith.”

2. Isaac Newton – Physicist, mathematician and astronomer.  Newton’s theory of universal gravitation and 3 laws of motion are basis for modern engineering.  He developed calculus and the first practical reflecting telescope.  He once wrote “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”  He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

3.  Jeannette Picard – An accomplished scientist, teacher, priest and aeronaut, she became the first woman to reach the stratosphere (57, 579 feet).  She worked on many high profile balloon project and with her husband Jean,invented the plastic balloon.  She also made history at the age of 79 in 1974 when she became one of the Philadelphia 11, the first woman ordained priest in the Episcopal Church.

4.  Charles Darwin – A deeply religious man, Darwin attended a CoE school and studied Anglican theology with the intent of becoming a clergyman.  He is well known for his theory of natural selection resulting from his 5 year voyage on the Beagle, which was published in his famous book, On the Origin of Species.  He is interred in Westminster Abbey not far from Isaac Newton.

5.  Donald W. Douglas, Sr. – The aeronautics pioneer and founder of  the Douglas company which built the “DC” line of aircraft, including the DC-8, one of the world’s first commercial jetliners as well as having built the first airplane to lift a useful load greater than its own weight.  First an Asst. Aeronautics professor at MIT, then founding the Douglas Company which became McDonnell-Douglas AIrcraft and then merged with Boeing.