Governor of Pennsylvania. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania for one term from January 1919 until January 1923. Born of Quaker parents in Colerain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, his family moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when he was young and then returned Delaware County, Pennsylvania in 1883 where he graduated in 1887 from Chester High School in Chester, Pennsylvania. He then attended Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1891. He entered the field of newspaper publishing, acquiring the Franklin Printing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later purchasing a half-interest in the Chester Daily Times and became its president. He invested heavily and he held stock and posts in manufacturing, mining, iron processing, railroads, banking, and farming enterprises in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Between 1895 and 1900 he served as director or president of many different enterprises. In 1897 he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate and served until 1919. In 1911 he drafted the landmark Sproul Highway Act, which created the state highway system. In 1918 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania and he focused extensively on expanding funding for education, roadway construction, and veterans' services. He also spurred an effort to expand state forest land so as to replenish the state's woodlands after years of degradation by the lumber companies. In 1920 he was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and was later offered the nomination for vice president on a ticket with Warren Harding, but he declined. After leaving the governor's office in 1923, he returned to his home in Delaware County and devoted himself to his business interests and humanitarian affairs. In 1926 he chaired the bi-state committee that organized the construction of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey. He died two years later at the age of 57. Before his death, he dispensed his entire fortune, worth millions, to Quaker charities. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1912.