Lee Stetson, retired dean of admissions at Penn, has died at 82

Lee Stetson, 82, of Ardmore, retired dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, college admissions consultant and lecturer, mentor, teacher, and veteran, died Wednesday, July 31, of age-associated decline at his home.

Dean Stetson arrived at Penn as director of admissions in 1978 and was named dean in 1981. For the next 26 years, until his retirement in 2007, he helped Penn expand and improve its student recruitment programs, triple its yearly diverse enrollment, and refine its approach to early-decision admissions, home-schooled students, athlete recruitment, and other admissions issues.

He championed standardized testing that was more equitable for disadvantaged students, additional support for working students, and innovative collaborative efforts with other schools to recruit exceptional students from around the world. The overarching message of his tenure, he said often in The Inquirer and elsewhere, was that Penn students are more than their test score, grade-point average, athletic prowess, or connection to the school.

“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,” he 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.”

Dean Stetson oversaw 20 admissions officers and 30 support staffers, and applications increased from 7,000 in 1981 to nearly 20,000 in 2007. He navigated through choppy enrollment periods in the 1980s and ‘90s, and worked nearly seamlessly with five Penn presidents.

He mentored colleagues around the world in the changing educational landscape, and they copied his “modern” admissions practices and called him a “visionary inspirational leader.” Penn earned a place among the country’s top recruiters, and former president Amy Gutmann and former provost Ronald Daniels praised his “keen awareness of the challenges involved in selective admissions” in 2007.

Joe Watkins, former assistant to former Penn president Sheldon Hackney, said: “He had a great intellect and was an exceptional leader with an administrative genius, always paying attention to even the smallest detail.”

He worked closely on recruiting with former Penn football coach Al Bagnoli and men’s basketball coach Fran Dunphy, and, an athlete himself, followed the teams closely. “He helped raise the national profile of UPenn and changed the trajectory of countless young men and women,” Bagnoli said. Dunphy said: “He loved sports, and he knew our jobs.”

He supported working students, he said in 1998, because “working shows industriousness and commitment. But what they’ve learned about life from it is just as important.” He organized recruiting centers with other Ivy League schools in California and Texas, and took presentations about Penn’s faculty and facilities to students around the world. “You have to reach them through different access points than the normal high school route,” he said in 1994.

He embraced the internet as a recruiting tool and forged international connections through the State Department and other organizations. He worked in admissions at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, from 1968 to 1978, became director, and moved to Philadelphia from Newark, Del., when he joined Penn.

He consulted for college officials and students applying to colleges, and lectured to groups about admissions after he retired. Earlier, he was a history teacher at Springfield High School in Delaware County.

He served as a lieutenant in the Army signal corps in Vietnam in the early 1960s and said later that experience strengthened his interest in electronics and teamwork. He was a trustee for the College Board and USO of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, member of several scholarship selection committees, and a regional leader for the National Association of College Admission Counseling.

“He loved his job, and he loved his students,” said his wife, Sally. “He loved shaping a class.”

Willis Joseph Stetson Jr. was born Sept. 8, 1941. He grew up in Springfield, Delaware County, and played basketball and baseball, and was class president at Springfield High School and later at Delaware.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics at Delaware in 1963, and a master’s degree in psychological services at Penn. He met Sally Watson at Delaware, and they married in 1979, reared daughter Lindsey, and lived in Newark, Philadelphia, Newtown Square, and Ardmore.

Dean Stetson spent many summers as a boy with his family at camp in Maine. They called him Lee because his father was Bill. He loved animals, especially dogs, and old westerns, and was always interested in birds and the weather.

He was on the golf team at Delaware and enjoyed talking with his daughter about the Phillies and Eagles, and all kinds of things. He was outgoing and told great stories. He was almost always the last to leave the party.

“He showed such genuine interest in other people,” his daughter said. “I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without all he did for me.”

In addition to his wife and daughter, Dean Stetson is survived by his sister, Sara Jean James, daughter-in-law, Julianne, and other relatives.

A celebration of his life is to be held at 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2, at St. Mary’s Church, Hamilton Village, 3916 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.

Donations in his name may be made to the University of Pennsylvania football program, Office of the Treasurer, Box 71332, Philadelphia, Pa. 19176; and the USO of Philadelphia and South Jersey, Box 96860, Washington, D.C. 20077.