Penn alumni legend E. Craig Sweeten died at 100

E. Craig Sweeten, the legendary Penn alumnus who never left the University in heart, died Aug. 7 in Florida at the age of 100.  

You’ll probably recognize the name Sweeten when walking by Sweeten Alumni House, the red-brick gothic-style house that is home to Penn Alumni Relations. But you might not know the story of the man who dedicated his life’s career to Penn, the school that he deeply cherished. 

A 1937 Wharton graduate, Sweeten went to work for Penn’s Bicentennial Campaign two days after his graduation and had served the University since. In 1956, he was named Penn’s director of development and has since served various roles within the University. Nineteen years later, he became Penn’s senior vice president and helped gather $225 million in fundraising in 1980.

When Sweeten retired in 1981, the General Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania awarded him the Alumni Award of Merit in recognition of his contributions to the school. In the same year, the Board of Trustees voted to name the alumni relations building E. Craig Sweeten Alumni House.

Sweeten was married to Nancy Rafetto Sweeten, who has served as the vice dean of Penn’s College of Women and a member of the English department. The Sweetens lived in Venice, Fla. for 10 years and then moved to Bay Village in Sarasota, Fla. in 2000.

In 2007, Sweeten remarked about his understanding between a school and its alumni, saying, “Generations of students come, each generation important in its day, and then they recede like the tides … But you alumni are the one constant in the enduring nature of universities.

 “Long associations spur convictions, and I have my share of these. More compelling perhaps than any other is the conviction that you, you the alumni, are the rock upon which this institution rests and which fortifies its being,” he continued.

Penn continued to show its appreciation for what Sweeten did for the University.

President Gutmann wrote a letter to Sweeten in January 2015, congratulating him on his 100th birthday and thanking him for his dedication to Penn. She praised Sweeten’s “thoughtful work” to the school’s Development and Alumni Relations Office and wrote: “Best of all, you have fulfilled your many roles with dignity, grace, and humility, as well as a genuine concern for the betterment of Penn. You have received many of this University’s most distinguished awards — all richly deserved — for your lifelong efforts on behalf of your alma mater.”

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