Founder of Wellesley College. Son of William and Harriet (Fowle) Smith. Born in Hanover, N.H., February 20, 1822. May 23, 1854 he married Pauline Adeline Fowle, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel John Fowle, Jr. Changed his name to Henry Fowle Durant. Henry Fowle Durant (originally Henry Welles Smith) (February 22, 1822 -- October 3, 1881) was an American lawyer and philanthropist. Durant was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from Harvard in 1841, studied law, and subsequently practiced in Boston. He underwent a religious conversion and became a lay preacher in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, practicing from 1864 to 1875. Henry Fowle Durant contributed between one and two million dollars to found Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Durant died from Bright's Disease at the age of 59.
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