The Honorable Earle I. Mack: Lifting Spirits and Inspiring Minds

In 2008, Ambassador Earle I. Mack ’59, HD ’06, pledged a transformative $15 million gift to the endowment of the School of Law. His generosity helps to continue to attract highly qualified students and faculty and to enhance the newly named Earle Mack School of Law’s innovative brand of legal education. It also guarantees continued academic excellence.

Distinguished as a successful businessman, diplomat, and arts advocate, Earle I. Mack was also a senior partner of the Mack Company, a prominent real-estate development, investment, and management firm. After serving as chairman of the New York State Racing Commission and the New York State Council on the Arts, he was appointed United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Finland. From 1980 to 2004, he held a seat on the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law board, chairing the panel for 12 years.

Mack earned his bachelor’s degree from Drexel University. Ambassador Mack also holds an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Yeshiva University. For his many accomplishments, he has been selected from among 65,000 candidates to be named one of the outstanding alumni among the Drexel 100.

Ambassador Mack, who earned letters on Drexel’s swim and baseball teams and worked as an editor and columnist at The Triangle, said a fondness for his alma mater came to full flower as he realized how his education affected his life. “I didn’t at first realize how much my alma mater had meant to me. Now I do,” he said. “My Drexel education reinforced for me that public service and philanthropy do make a difference. These were the lessons that gave shape to my career and meaning to my life. This was the moral compass from which I navigated through my life.”

He continues to be one of Drexel’s most generous and ardent supporters. Recently, Ambassador Mack made a significant contribution to the Drexel University Outdoor Art Fund, so that Drexel could purchase the distinctive sculpture “Le Coureur” (“The Runner”), by Richier, to be displayed in front of the Earle Mack School of Law. In his own words, fine art has the power to “lift the spirit, enhance culture, and inspire all who pass.”