the organizers of the planned school formed a board of visitors, which included preston, and the board selected claudius crozet, a u.s. army veteran who had served under napoleon bonaparte in france before immigrating to the united states, to serve as their president. crozet was also the chief engineer of virginia and someone whom thomas jefferson referred to as, "the smartest mathematician in the united states." the board delegated to preston the task of deciding what to call the new school, and he created the name virginia military institute.