Drexel Family at Drexel University
Intergenerational Connections
Many family members have been involved in the administration and fundraising for Drexel University over its 130-year history.
The Board of Trustees in 1891 included James W. Paul, Jr. and Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. They were also on the Board of Managers that included fellow family members George Childs Drexel, John R. Fell, Edward Morrell, and Walter George Smith. James W. Paul, Jr., the husband of Frances Drexel and a partner at Drexel & Co., was involved in the early development of the Institute and served as president of the Board of Trustees from 1894 until his death in 1908, at which time Alexander Van Rensselaer became the president of the Board, until his death in 1933.
Alexander and Sarah Van Rensselaer were particularly involved in the athletics department of the school and financing the Institute; Sarah was a major proponent of women’s gymnastic education. The two opened Runnymede to Institute students in 1911.
More Drexels served as trustees in the early years of the school: besides those already named, Robert K. Cassatt, husband of Amanda “Minnie” Drexel; their son, Alexander Cassatt; Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Sr.; and his brother, Livingston Ludlow Biddle, Sr.; among others.
In more recent decades, Karen Biddle was the marketing director for the University’s Nesbitt College of Design Arts and Special Projects in the 1990s and was actively involved in the Drexel Museum as well as planning the 1991 Centennial reunion for the family.
Teaching
Cordelia Frances Biddle currently teaches creative writing at the Pennoni Honors College. Cordelia F. Biddle won the Honors College Teaching Excellence Prize in 2012 and the Adjunct Faculty Award in 2021. She previously taught at the University of the Arts and Temple University, as well as one-day seminars with Mystery Writers of America.