As the Revolutionary War came to a close, Washington College was just getting started. Its founder, William Smith, had a revolutionary idea: to educate responsible citizen-leaders who could make the new democracy work. Washington College challenges and inspires emerging citizen leaders to discover lives of purpose and passion. Washington College had evolved from the Kent County School, an institution of more than sixty years’ standing in “Chester Town,” which by 1782 had reached considerable strength and importance as a port city.