John R. Drexel III
John Rozet Drexel III was an American sportsman and clubman.
Early life
Drexel was born in Manhattan on October 6, 1919. He was the only child of John Rozet Drexel Jr., and, his first wife, Elizabeth Hough Drexel, who married in 1918 and divorced in 1924. Shortly after his parents' divorce, his father married Jane Barbour, a daughter of John Robert Taliaferro Barbour and a descendant of President Zachary Taylor, in 1925. From his father's second marriage, he had two half-siblings, David Anthony Drexel, and Jane Barbour Drexel.His maternal grandparents were James Beaton Thompson. His paternal grandparents were Alice Gordon Drexel and John R. Drexel, the eldest surviving son of financier Anthony Joseph Drexel. His aunt, Alice Gordon Drexel, was a debutante who eloped Captain William Barrett, of the Army Air Service, after which his grandparents relocated to Paris. His uncle, Gordon Preston Drexel, never married and spent "most of his time traveling."
Drexel spent much of his childhood in Neuilly, France, where his grandmother lived, and was educated at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts before attending Harvard University, graduated in 1942.
Career
Throughout most of his life, Drexel managed his family's finances and directed its philanthropic endeavors, focusing on local hospitals and animal shelters.Club and society life
In New York City, he was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Knickerbocker Club, Union Club and the River Club. He served on the board of the [Good Samaritan Medical Center (West Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach, Florida)|Good Samaritan Hospital] in Palm Beach and on the boards of many clubs, including Spouting Rock Beach Association, Clambake Club and the Reading Room ; the Bath and Tennis Club and Everglades Club ; and the Jupiter Island Club in Hobe Sound.Personal life
After first meeting at Tuxedo Park, Drexel was married to the Hon. Mildred Sophia Noreen Stonor at St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in New York on January 11, 1941. the youngest daughter of Mildred Constance Sherman and Ralph Stonor, 5th Baron Camoys, of Stonor Park. Together, they were the parents of:Pamela Noreen Drexel, who married stockbroker Bradford Hastings Walker, a stepson of James A. Burden III, in 1966.- John Rozet "Nick" Drexel IV, who married Pamela Braga, a daughter of sugar merchant B. Rionda Braga, in 1969. After their 1976 divorce, she married J. Carter Brown and he married Mary Jacqueline "Jackie" Astor, a daughter of John Jacob Astor VI and, his second wife, Gertrude Gretsch, in 1984.Noreen Elizabeth Mildred Drexel, who married lawyer William John O'Farrell in 1990.
Drexel died of heart-failure at his home in Newport on April 13, 2007. His widow died in Newport on November 6, 2012, after suffering a stroke.