Frank Aydelotte
| Frank Aydelotte | |
|---|---|
| 7th President of Swarthmore College | |
|
In office 1921–1940 |
|
| Preceded by | Joseph Swain |
| Succeeded by | John W. Nason |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 16, 1880 Sullivan, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | December 17, 1956 (aged 76) Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Indiana University Harvard University Oxford University |
| Profession | educator, administrator |
Franklin Ridgeway Aydelotte (October 16, 1880–December 17,1956) was a U.S. educator. He became the first non-Quaker president of Swarthmore College and between 1921 and 1940 redefined the institution. He was active in the Rhodes Scholar program, helped evacuate intellectuals persecuted by the Nazis during the 1930s and served as director of the Institute for Advanced Study during World War II.
Aydelotte was born in a small town in Sullivan County, Indiana, the son of William Ephraim Aydelotte and Matilda Brunger Aydelotte, and had at least one sister. He attended Indiana University where he was an English major, a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, earned a varsity letter in football and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1911. In 1907 he married Marie Jeanette Osgood.
After graduation, he became an English professor first at a teaching college in California, Pennsylvania now called California University of Pennsylvania, then at Vincennes University and Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky. He became one of the first Rhodes Scholars and studied at Brasenose College, Oxford University.
By 1921, Aydelotte was president of Swarthmore College where he successfully blended the educational processes he learned at Oxford with the traditional Hicksite Quaker values the college was founded on. He expanded the college to an economically viable size and developed a broad-based liberal arts educational curriculum that stressed academic excellence.
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