The hard-charging president of Drexel University, Constantine N. Papadakis, died on Sunday night of pulmonary complications, just days after announcing he would take a medical leave of absence to fight lung cancer. He was 63.
Mr. Papadakis served as president of Drexel for 14 years, overseeing enormous expansion as the university doubled its enrollment and increased its selectivity.
He steered Drexel as it took over a medical school, opened a law school, created Drexel Online, and added a master’s program in Sacramento. Mr. Papadakis had been considering opening a four-year campus in California as well, but no details have yet been made final.
U.S. News & World Report ranked Drexel sixth on its list of up-and-coming national universities, and Mr. Papadakis consistently ranked among the highest-paid university presidents.
Mr. Papadakis’s lung cancer was diagnosed more than a year ago, but it had been thought to have been in remission. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Eliana, and his daughter Maria, 23, a 2008 Drexel graduate. —Megan Eckstein
