Dates

• Usage: 1889 - 1962

Biographical Note

Kelly Hall 1967

Ralph Kelly (1889-1962) was a businessman and former Commissioner of Customs during the Eisenhower administration who donated the money to build Kelly Hall, which was completed in 1967. In his will he also left a trust fund to Drexel for scholarships for students “whose homes are more than 20 miles from Philadelphia City Hall.”

Raised in Boston, Kelly earned a BS in electrical engineering from Harvard in 1909. He began his lengthy career at Westinghouse Electric Corporation upon graduating, and married Ethel Burgess in 1914.

Kelly served in the US Navy from 1917 to 1919, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He returned to Westinghouse in 1920. In 1934, Kelly was named Vice President in charge of Westinghouse’s East Pittsburgh plant, and in 1938 became Vice President in charge of sales.

Kelly was based in Philadelphia starting in 1942, when he became executive vice president of Baldwin Locomotive Works; the next year he was appointed president of Baldwin, a role he held for the next five years.

Roles he held in Philadelphia included president of the Chamber of Commerce from 1949 to 1951, manager of Philadelphia Saving Fund Society starting in 1942, member of the Board of Trustees of Hahnemann University and Hospital, and named to the City Charter Commission in 1949.

In March, 1953, Kelly was appointed Commissioner of Customs and served through the Eisenhower administration, till 1961.

After Kelly passed away, his wife, Ethel Burgess Kelly, donated a portrait of him painted by James McBey. It hung in Kelly Hall for many decades. When it was discovered in storage in 2015, it was found to be in poor condition and received extensive conservation treatment in 2017. It was reinstalled in Kelly Hall in the winter of 2017.

Sources:

New and Conserved Pieces, The Drexel Collection https://drexel.edu/drexelcollection/view/New-Conserved-Pieces/

“Drexel Scholarship Left by Ralph Kelly.” May 24, 1962. The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Ralph Kelly, 73, Dies.” January 27, 1962. The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Ralph Kelly, Industrialist, Dead." January 27, 1962. New York Times.

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