John Rozet Drexel III (1919-2007)

He was born in New York City and was educated at St. Mark's School and Harvard. He was a great-grandson of the legendary financier Anthony Joseph Drexel, of Philadelphia, and when his father died in 1936 he inherited nearly $50 million. He was fluent in French having spent much of his childhood with his paternal grandmother, Alice Drexel, in and around Paris. In the same year that he graduated from Harvard (1942), he married the English-American aristocrat the Hon. Noreen Stonor who grew up between Stonor Park in England and Stonor Lodge in Newport, Rhode Island. They divided their time between Manhattan, Newport, and Palm Beach, Florida, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were frequent guests at their homes. Drexel's daughter said that he should have become a diplomat, but "he never seemed bored just socializing". He sat on the boards of several clubs and was a member of the New York Yacht Club - he loved sailing and was a passionate follower of the America's Cup. He was survived by two daughters (Mrs Noreen O’Farrell and Pamela Drexel) and a son, John Rozet Drexel IV, who is married to Mary Jacqueline Astor, grand-daughter of John Jacob Astor IV.