Lee Stetson, Penn's former dean of admissions who spent 29 years at the school, died on July 31.
Stetson, who was also a teacher, veteran, and college consultant, served as Penn's dean of admissions from 1981 until his retirement in 2007. He died in his home at the age of 82, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
As dean, Stetson led the admissions team's efforts to expand student recruitment and diversify the applicant pool. He advocated for equitable standardized testing for disadvantaged students and initiated collaborations to recruit international students to Penn.
“There have been many examples of students with lower than average SAT scores who have been on the dean’s list at Penn and true scholars in their work,” Stetson told The Inquirer in 1991. “We care much more about students as individuals and contributions they made to their community, their creative abilities and interests, their depth and potential.”
Stetson oversaw a more than threefold jump in applications during his time at Penn, from around 7,000 applications in 1978 to nearly 23,000 in 2007. Over that time period, the number of students of color in the admitted class tripled, and the number of international students increased from 29 to 318.
“Dean Stetson will be remembered for his more than 25 years of leadership at Penn Admissions and for the many lives he impacted at Penn, across the city of Philadelphia, and around the world,” Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Stetson, a Pennsylvania native, graduated from the University of Delaware in 1963. After serving as a lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps in South Vietnam, he began teaching history at Springfield High School in Delaware County. He later became the director of admissions at the University of Delaware and earned his master’s of science degree from Penn in psychological services with an emphasis in counseling and administration.
In 1978, Stetson moved on to direct Penn's Admissions Office, where he organized recruiting centers with other Ivy League schools and presented information about Penn’s facilities and faculty around the world.
Apart from his role at Penn, Stetson was an active member of the Philadelphia community, serving on the Board of Trustees for the College Entrance Examination Board and on the Board of Directors of the Custodial Trust Company. He was also a former president of the Potomac and Chesapeake region of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
A celebration of Stetson's life will take place at 1 p.m. on Oct. 2 at St. Mary’s Church Hamilton Village at 3916 Locust Walk.
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