Oliver Dean, born in Franklin, Massachusetts on February 18, 1783, was a successful physician in both Boston and Medway. He also served as superintendent of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill in Manchester, New Hampshire. Dean eventually retired back to his hometown of Franklin where he founded the Universalist Church. He also purchased part of the farmland that had been owned by Nathanael Emmons and donated nine acres of the land to found Dean Academy.

 

Oliver Dean died in 1871.