George A. Hoadley photograph collection

George A. Hoadley was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in 1848 and graduated from Union College in 1874 with degrees in engineering. He served as principal of Argyle Academy, New York, 1874-1879, and at high schools in Massachusetts before being appointed professor of physics at Swarthmore College in 1888. In 1892 he was appointed Vice-President of the College, and he served as Acting President several times. While he remained committed to the College, he retired from the faculty in 1914 to become secretary of the Franklin Institute. As well as supporting College interests and activities, he served as president of the Swarthmore School District School Board. In 1900 with his second wife, Marie Kemp Hoadley, he moved his extensive family into a large frame home at 518 Walnut Lane, Swarthmore, a house which remained in the family until 2019. Ecumenical in his religious practice, he was a founder of the non-denominational Union Church in Swarthmore and occasionally lectured at the nearby Swarthmore Meeting. George A. Hoadley died in 1936.

Hoadley was married three times and had nine children, most of whom attended Swarthmore College. With his first wife, Ida Burtch Hoadley, he had four children, all of whom attended Swarthmore College. Ida died in 1891, and in 1895, George married second Marie A. Kemp, a professor of German at the College, 1891-1901. She earned her B.A. and A.M. from Swarthmore College. Marie had one child, Anthony deHothleigh Hoadley, born in 1901.

In 1908, George A. Hoadley married third Fannie Burnham Kilgore, a Swarthmore College graduate, school teacher, and 32 years his junior. Her mother, Carrie Sylvester Burnham Kilgore (1838-1909) was a suffragist and the first woman admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. Three of Fannie Hoadley's children graduated from Swarthmore College. Son George B. Hoadley (1909-1995) became a Quaker on request and married Mary Elizabeth Betts in 1934 under the care of Buckingham Monthly Meeting. His younger sister, Florence A. Hoadley, Swarthmore College Class of 1932, became a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting in 1937 and lived in the family home until her death in 1993.