Clarissa W. Pell | College fund-raiser, 98

Clarissa Wardwell Pell, 98, of Wyndmoor, formerly of Chestnut Hill, who raised millions of dollars for her alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, died of an aortic aneurysm Monday at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Mrs. Pell, a native of New York City, earned a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr in 1930.

She then worked as a probation officer in New York before marrying Francis L. Pell Jr. in 1932. The couple raised two children in Chestnut Hill.

In 1952, Mrs. Pell was asked to head a resource committee at Bryn Mawr and direct the college's first non-alumnae fund-raising campaign.

For 16 years, she solicited money from social and business contacts, and it was used to fund additions to the library, a new biology building, and other capital projects. She was a volunteer "dollar a year" employee, her son Edward said. Nowadays, he said, a paid professional staff at Bryn Mawr continues the fund-raising she began. In 1968, Mrs. Pell was director of the Bryn Mawr College Alumnae Association.

For many years, she chaired the Women's Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2001, the museum honored her for her volunteer service.

In addition to her son Edward, she is survived by another son, Lewis, and four grandchildren. Her husband died in 1987.

A memorial service will held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Martin in the Fields Church, Willow Grove Avenue and St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia.