Collegeville Connects: News From Main Street

Business and civic leader John E.F. (Jef) Corson of Plymouth Meeting will become the interim president of Ursinus College when President John Strassburger steps down June 30 after 15 years as President. Corson currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Montgomery Hospital Medical Center in Norristown, and is Vice Chair of the Ursinus College Board of Trustees.

A committee charged with recommending a candidate for interim president unanimously recommended Corson to become interim President July 1. His service will continue until the next President of Ursinus College is inaugurated. A Presidential Search Committee chaired by Ursinus Trustee Robert Barchi, President of Jefferson Medical College, will recommend a candidate for President. President Strassburger, who announced on February 11 that he asked to step down for personal and health reasons, will serve as President Emeritus, continuing his role as a national leader and advocate for liberal education.

"I am thrilled that Mr. Corson has agreed to accept this vital position," said Spencer Foreman M.D. of White Plains, N.Y., Chair of the Ursinus Board of Trustees. "He is uniquely qualified by his experience with business and non-profit organizations and his long history of active engagement with virtually every aspect of the operation of the College. We are fortunate, too, that he already is so well known by the campus community and enjoys the friendship and respect of faculty, staff and students."

Mr. Corson is President of the Corson Foundation and the Corson Investment Co., a group of family partnerships and a consulting firm. He also serves as a Principle and Board member of Abbott & Cobb, Inc., a vegetable seed company headquartered in Trevose, Pa. He previously held positions as Vice President of C.E.S. Associates, an independent specialty oil wholesaler and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of G & W.H. Corson Inc. until the company was sold to IU International, and he became Vice President of Operations.

In addition to serving as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Montgomery Hospital, he serves on the Boards of the Montgomery Foundation and The Montgomery County Lands Trust. He formerly served as a Trustee at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Boards of Progress Bank, The First National Bank of Atlanta, Carl A. Posse & Co., The Pennsylvania State Board of Examiners of Public Accounts, The Valley Forge Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Montgomery County Community College Foundation, the Superior Tube Scholarship Foundation and Central Montgomery County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Administration.

Corson is a graduate of Williams College and has served Ursinus as a Trustee since 1983. He has served the Board as its secretary, treasurer and vice chair, as well as chair of key committees including Finance, Development, and Building and Grounds. In 1970 the College's administration building was named in honor of his parents, Philip L. and Helen P. Corson. Mr. Corson and his wife, Carol, are the parents of an Ursinus graduate, Flynn, Class of 2004, in addition to children Samantha, Sean, Mary-Catherine, Chelsea and Johnna. The Corsons have four grandchildren.