Widener University

Joseph Emery Boettner was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from West Philadelphia High School and attended the Evening School of Accounts and Balances at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1934, Boettner completed a course of study at American College of Life Underwriters in Bryn Mawr and received his Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation. Boettner worked in the life insurance business since 1922 and in 1951 he joined Philadelphia Life Insurance Company as Superintendent of Agencies. The next year he was elected Vice President as well as Superintendent of Agencies.

In 1956, Boettner became executive vice president and in 1957 he was elected president of the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company. He served on the boards at Temple University and American College, which later honored Boettner for his work. In 1966, Temple University established a chair in life insurance named after Boettner. In 1986, American College created the Boettner Institute of Financial Gerontology. In January 1975 Widener College elected Boettner to serve on its Board of Trustees. Boettner established the Chair of Financial Gerontology at Widener University to develop the interdisciplinary coursework necessary to apply the findings of the Institute of Financial Gerontology to everyday life. In 1980, Widener presented Boettner with an honorary degree in commercial sciences. Boettner died on October 27, 1994.

George Turner Cann was born in Savannah, Georgia on July 22, 1866. He graduated from Pennsylvania Military Academy in 1885 after only three years, with the distinctions of being ranking cadet officer as well as valedictorian. In 1886, Cann received his LL.D from Columbia College (now University) and was admitted to the Georgia Bar. From 1887- 1892, Cann served as the official court reporter of the Eastern Judicial Circuit Court of Georgia and as a judge on this circuit court from 1904- 1908. In addition, he was the Chatham County attorney for three terms and practiced law in the private sector for Anderson, Cann, and Cann.

George Cann was an active participant in many civic and fraternal organizations. He served as Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias in 1911, president of the Savannah Board of Trade from 1917- 1918, president of the Five Ports Association, secretary of the Georgia Historical Society, curator of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, director of the YMCA, and finally was the author of Requests to Change in Criminal and Civil Cases. Using the military background attained at PMC, Cann enlisted in the Savannah Volunteer Guards in 1887 and advanced to captain in 1892. In 1897, he was appointed colonel and Inspector General of Rifle Practice of the Georgia State Troops. Cann also continued his involvement with his alma mater. A member of the Board of Trustees at PMC from 1924- 1937, Cann was awarded the Honorary Degrees of Master of Arts in 1892 and Doctor of Laws in 1935. George Turner Cann died on November 10, 1937."

Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., descendant and heir of Philadelphia's prominent Widener family, was born in 1922. In the 1800's, Peter Arrell Brown Widener built the family's wealth through the meat industry and street railway systems. Peter's son, George Dunton Widener, and grandson, Harry Elkins Widener, died on the Titanic in 1912. George D. Widener's daughter, Eleanor, married Fitz Eugene Dixon Sr. soon after the tragedy. F. Eugene Dixon Jr. attended the Episcopal Academy and Harvard University. Beginning in 1943, he spent 16 years as a teacher and administrator at Episcopal before retiring to dedicate himself to education, health, sports, and civic organizations.

Dixon served on the board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Liberty National Bank, and Provident National Bank. An avid sportsman, F. Eugene Dixon owned a minority share of the Flyers and a majority share of the 76ers. Dixon also owned the Philadelphia Wings professional lacrosse team from 1975 to 1977, when the league folded. Perhaps most significant of all of F. Eugene Dixon's interests was his unwavering commitment of time and money to the advancement of education. F. Eugene Dixon had a long relationship with PMC College(s) / Widener University. He joined the Board of Trustees in 1960 and became its Chairman in 1972. He held this position from 1972- 1984 and again from 1987- December 1998. Under Dixon's leadership, the Board of Trustees voted to dissolve the cadet corps and rename the school Widener College. The name was chosen to honor F. Eugene Dixon's family. In 1973, Dixon received the first honorary LL.D in the history of Widener College. F. Eugene Dixon died in August 2006 at the age of 82.

Caesar Augustin Grasselli II was born on February 17, 1901 in Cleveland, Ohio. His great- grandfather founded Grasselli Chemical Company of Ohio, which became a duPont subsidiary in 1928, and his father was vice president of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company. Grasselli graduated from Cornell University in 1924 with a degree in chemistry and economics.

From January 1925- December 1929, Grasselli worked for Grasselli Chemical Company. In 1930 he was transferred to Wilmington, DE, to work as technical investigator for the duPont Development Department. In January 1936, Grasselli was sent to London as Assistant European Manager of duPont, and was promoted to European Manager. Grasselli returned Wilmington in December 1939 and was called to active duty in May 1942. Grasselli went to England to serve as U.S. Liaison Officer for the invasion of North Africa in the British First Army, retaining the rank of Major. In March 1945, Grasselli was transferred to the U.S. Planning Group for Austria in Caserta, Italy and in May 1945, he went to Vienna as the Deputy Director of the Economics Division of U.S. Forces- Austria. One year later, after 43 months of service, Grasselli was discharged with the rank of Colonel, and he returned to the duPont International Department. While serving, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1944, and the U.S. Legion of Merit in 1945. Grasselli has the distinction of having served under British command longer than any other American military officer.

Grasselli worked as the manager of Government Contacts Division of the duPont Company's International Department until his retirement on June 30, 1955. He served as a trustee of the Wilmington Medical Center and the Mental Health Association of Delaware, the director of the Delaware Selective Service Board and the University of Delaware Research Foundation. Grasselli was a member of the Board of Trustees at PMC for approximately 20 years, providing leadership on academic committees and building programs. He was Chairman of the President's Council, and also served as a trustee of the Delaware Law School. On February 23, 1967, the Alumni Association presented Grasselli with the R. Kelso Carter Award, its highest honor for a non- graduate. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from PMC Colleges on June 10, 1969.

Born in 1907 in Chester, PA, John R. Hanna resided at 1123 Upland St. until age 10, when his family moved to Swarthmore. Hanna graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1926 and later graduated from Pennsylvania Military College in 1930 with a degree in civil engineering.

While at PMC, he was a star guard on the football team and was a member of Beta Zeta Epsilon Fraternity. In 1947, Hanna became a partner in his family business John R. Hanna and Sons, a contracting business which installed most of Chester's sidewalks, and later went on to be its president and owner.

John Hanna held leadership positions in many local businesses throughout his life. Among them: owner of Castle Materials Inc., Central Concrete Plant and Consumers Fuel and Oil Co., partial ownership and a seat on the board of directors at Chester Times (now Delaware County Daily Times), and treasurer of the Thayer Corporation. As an active alumnus, Hanna became a member of the PMC Board of Trustees in 1955 and later served as president of the Alumni Association Board of Managers. At the time of his death in 1982 at age 74, Hanna served as a trustee emeritus.

Edwin A. Howell was born on May 11, 1871 in New Market, N. J. His father worked as a civil engineer and in 1887 was hired by Pennsylvania Military College as a Professor of Engineering. Having completed one year of study at Alfred University, in New York, Howell choose to follow his father and joined the class of 1890. This represented the start of his life-long association with PMC.

Howell graduated first in his class with a degree in civil engineering. He also achieved the rank of lieutenant in the cadet corps. After graduation, Howell began his engineering career, working as assistant engineer for the Pennsylvania & Northwestern Railroad. His passion for engineering and his loyalty to his alma mater motivated Howell to return to Chester, teach engineering at PMC and pursue graduate study. He earned a Master's Degree from the college in 1911. During this time, Howell also began to "read law" with the intention on entering the legal profession.

In the early twentieth century, law firms still accepted students who studied law on their own. Howell was admitted to the Delaware County Bar in 1896 (Chester Times) and joined the law offices of William B. Broomall. The following year, Howell joined the Board of Trustees at PMC as college solicitor and secretary of the board. In 1947, he became president of the Chester Times' Board of Directors. Along with these impressive appointments, Howell continued to run a successful law practice in Chester.

PMC suffered serious financial struggles in the 1930's. Howell began to study options to create an improved financial structure and a revitalize the college. He suggested that PMC should become a non-profit institution for the public (Chester Times). In June 1936, the Hyatt family relinquished control of the college to the trustees in order to facilitate this change. When Col. Frank Hyatt retired, Howell became acting president from June 1952- August 1953; for the first time in approximately a century, a member of the Hyatt family did not serve as president. After Howell resigned the presidency, he was elected president of the Board of Trustees in March 1954, a position he held until his death in November of that year. Howell is credited with establishing a trust fund at PMC to aid students from Delaware County.

Clarence Russell Moll was born on October 31, 1913 in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. He received a bachelor of science in education from Temple University in 1934, followed by a master's degree in education three years later. From 1935 to 1942, Moll taught physics, chemistry, and science at several high schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

During World War II, he accepted a position with the U.S. Navy instructing civilian and naval personnel in radio and radar theory. In 1943, Moll left the Navy and joined Pennsylvania Military College as an associate professor of physics and engineering. From 1945 to 1956, he held the various positions of headmaster of the prep school, registrar, and coordinator of engineering. Meanwhile, he earned his Ph.D. in higher education from New York University in 1955. In 1956, Dr. Moll became a vice president before being selected as the first civilian president of Pennsylvania Military College in 1959.

Moll's tenure would result in drastic change, growth, and expansion for the institution. Although he was dedicated to the preservation of the corps of cadets, financial necessity led to the founding of Penn Morton College, a civilian co-ed counterpart to Pennsylvania Military College in 1966. When attempts to reverse the declining enrollment and rising costs of the military component failed, the corps was disbanded in 1972 and Widener College, a civilian co-educational college, was created. Moll guided the school and continued to provide innovative options in education during this transitional period.

In 1975, the Delaware Law School was affiliated with Widener, and Brandywine College merged with Widener in 1976. On July 1, 1979, Widener achieved university status. Dr. Moll retired on June 30, 1981 after 22 years as president. He remained very active in the community, serving as president emeritus and providing advice when called upon. Dr. Moll died in December of 2002.

Lawrence P. Sharples was born in 1891 to a prominent family and grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1912 with a B.S. in chemical engineering and served in World War I as a Tank Corps officer for the American Expeditionary Forces. After the war, he worked as an engineer at the Sharples-Milker Corporation. He became the president of Sharples-Milker in 1920. When the corporation split up, he served as vice president of the Sharples Corporation from 1932- 1962. Sharples held several patents for centrifugation processes and retired in 1962.

That same year, Sharples joined the Board of Trustees at PMC Colleges and became its chairman. As the chair of the foundation subcommittee, he played a key role in leading PMC's sesquicentennial campaign. Under Sharples leadership, the institution experienced tremendous growth and began admitting women. In recognition of his work on the board, Lawrence Sharples received the R. Kelso Carter award by the Alumni Association in 1968. He stepped down in 1972, but remained an honorary chairman from 1972- 1976.

Throughout his life, Sharples maintained a strong interest in aviation. He served as chairman of the aviation committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia and was on the board at the Franklin Institute from 1962- 1976. Sharples and four other Philadelphians co-founded the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in the late 1930's, and he was its chairman from 1940- 1974. Under his leadership, the AOPA grew to be the largest general aviation organization in the world. The organization honored Sharples with the creation if the L.P. Sharples Perpetual Award, to be given each year to a person who shows the ""same dedication to general aviation which had characterized the life of the founding chairman."

As a pilot, Sharples won the Doherty Cup air race in Florida in 1934, competed in international balloon races, and was the recipient of the Collier Award for prestigious achievement in airplane racing. At the age of 71, Sharples completed his first parachuting jump. He died on August 27, 1976 at the age of 85.

Clarence H. Thayer was born on January 15, 1898 in Stockton, California. At the age of 14, Thayer dropped out of school to work in a furniture-manufacturing firm, but supplemented his education though correspondence courses in mechanical engineering, architecture, English, and industrial management. In 1914, he began work at Standard Oil Company of California, and rose through the ranks from an office boy to shipping clerk, blueprint boy, and then draftsman.

Meanwhile, World War I erupted and Thayer enlisted in the Engineer Corps in 1917. He served in the 26th Regiment until his discharge in June 1919. After the war, Thayer resumed his job of draftsman at Standard and quickly began his rise through the company once again, earning promotions to Chief Draftsman, Project Engineer, and Assistant Superintendent of Maintenance. By August 1926, Thayer had joined Sun Oil Company in Pennsylvania as an engineer; promotions to Assistant Superintendent of Pressure Stills at the Marcus Hook refinery and Superintendent of Pressure Stills soon followed. Thayer was transferred to the Philadelphia executive offices of the Sun Oil Co. to serve as assistant to Arthur E. Pew Jr., who was then the vice president in charge of manufacturing. Within a few months, Thayer found himself named as the new Chief Engineer of the Manufacturing Department in charge of the Marcus Hook and Toledo, Ohio factories.

In 1941, Clarence Thayer was elected to the Sun Oil Co. Board of Directors, and in 1947, he was elected vice president of manufacturing. Thayer gained executive responsibility for Sun's manufacturing, research, engineering, and transportation departments when he was named senior vice president of Sun Oil Co. in April 1960. He was named president of Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited, a Sun Oil subsidiary, in 1964. This position was assigned to Thayer because Sun wanted him to direct the massive logistical and technological task of building and starting the first commercial plant to produce oil from the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta (Sun Refinery News).

Clarence Thayer's association with Pennsylvania Military College began on January 8, 1953 with his election to the PMC Board of Trustees. He served on the board during one of the rockiest periods in school history, the transition from PMC to Widener College. Thayer was very supportive of the science and engineering programs in particular, and assisted in the dedication of Kirkbride Hall, Widener's science center, in 1965. Widener was the recipient of many gifts and funds from Thayer, given through the Thayer Corporation. On August 11, 1976, Clarence H. Thayer died of lung cancer at the age of 78. At the time of his death he served as a trustee emeritus at Widener College.

James Elmer Turrell was born in 1884 in Noxen, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsylvania Military College, graduating in 1905 with a degree in civil engineering. Turrell spent much of the rest of his life working in the lumber business. However, he remained an active alumnus of PMC. From 1941-1961, Turrell served as a member of the Board of Trustees before resigning for health reasons. Over a four year period, 1957-1960, he donated over $10, 000 to the School of Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania Military College.