August 17, 2016

President William W. Hagerty is named the seventh president of the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1963 after serving as dean of the University of Texas’ College of Engineering. During his presidency, Hagerty grants twice as many degrees as any of his predecessors dating back to 1891, establishes several new schools and colleges plus a graduate program, expands the campus from 10 to nearly 40 acres, grows the budget tenfold to $80 million, increases the proportion of faculty with PhDs from 24 percent to 94 percent and doubles student enrollment to 14,000. He leads Drexel until his resignation in 1984, dying two years later of cancer at age 70. The W. W. Hagerty Library, opened in 1984, is named for him.