Eemil Nestor Setälä

Eemil Nestor Setälä (; 27 February 1864 – 8 February 1935) was a Finnish politician who served as Chairman of the Senate of Finland from September to November 1917. He is regarded as one of the principal authors of the Finnish Declaration of Independence.

Setälä was a linguist, professor of Finnish language and literature at Helsinki University from 1893 to 1929. He was a major influence on the study of Finnish language, the founder of the research institute ("Finnish kin"), and creator of the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.

Life Back row from left , Kaarle, Helmi with E.N. Setälä; in front Aune, Helena née Cleve and Aino Setälä was born in 1864. Already as a secondary school pupil in Tavastehus, encouraged by his teacher docent Arvid Genetz, he independently wrote a Finnish syntax that was published in 1880 while he himself was still in the seventh form — a feat that demonstrated his exceptional philological talent.

Architect and writer Salme Setälä was their daughter.

His political activities led him to be elected several times to the parliament, for the Young Finnish Party and for the National Coalition Party. For a brief period at the end of World War I, he served as acting head of state as the Chairman of the Senate. It has been said that the wording of the Finnish Declaration of Independence largely bears his signature.

He was the Envoy of Finland to Denmark and Hungary from 1927 to 1930.

From 1926 to 1935 he was Chancellor of the University of Turku.

Setälä died on 8 February 1935 on a train between Helsinki and Järvenpää. Thousands of residents from the Tuusula area accompanied him on his final journey to Helsinki, where he was accorded a state funeral.