Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred Thayer Mahan was a United States Navy admiral, geostrategist, and historian, who has been called the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century. His concept of sea power was based on the idea that countries with greater naval power will have greater worldwide impact it was most famously presented in The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 16601783 . The concept had an enormous influence in shaping the strategic thought of navies across the world, especially those of the United States, Germany, Japan and Britain, ultimately causing a European naval arms race in the 1890s. His ideas still permeate the US Navy doctrine.
Mahan was born on September 27, 1840, in West Point, New York, to Dennis Hart Mahan and Mary Helena Okill Mahan , daughter of John Okill and Mary Jay . His middle name, Thayer, honors the father of West Point, Sylvanus Thayer. He attended Saint James School, an Episcopal college preparatory academy in western Maryland. He then studied at Columbia for two years where he was a member of the Philolexian Society debating club and then, against his parents wishes, transferred to the Naval Academy, where he graduated second in his class in 1859.
Source: Wikipedia