Roosevelts at Harvard: A Family Matter

Return to main article:

James Roosevelt, Franklin's father, received his ll.b. from Harvard Law School in 1851. Theodore Roosevelt enrolled in the College in 1877, FDR in 1900. Thereafter, Roosevelts came to Harvard in droves. In 1936, the tercentennial year, when FDR ran for a second term, nine Roosevelts were registered in the College, including three sets of brothers.

FDR's Harvard progeny included three of his four sons—James '30, Franklin Jr. '37, and John '38—as well as four grandsons and a great-grandson. Eleanor Roosevelt's brother Hall '13 and his two sons also went to Harvard. Several of FDR's Delano uncles and cousins, including his uncle Fred—class of 1885, twice an Overseer, and president of the Alumni Association in 1932-33—were Harvard men.

Theodore Roosevelt, of the Oyster Bay branch, sent all four of his sons: Theodore '09, Kermit '12, Archibald '17, and Quentin '19. His daughters Alice and Ethel made it a clean sweep by marrying Harvard men (Senator Nicholas Longworth, A.B. 1891, and Dr. Richard Derby '03, who followed FDR on the Board of Overseers). Six of TR's grandsons, seven great-grandchildren, and a half dozen great-great-grandchildren have gone to Harvard.

Most of the 17 other Roosevelts on the alumni rolls were or are descendants of TR's four uncles, and thus belong to the Oyster Bay branch. TR's sister Corinne Roosevelt Robinson had two Harvard sons and a Harvard grandson (the late columnist Joseph Alsop '32).

No one named Roosevelt has graduated from Harvard since 1993, and no Roosevelt is currently enrolled.

You might also like

Artificial Intelligence in the Academy

Harvard symposium assesses the new technology.

How Does Hate Spread?

Harvard symposium probes antisemitic, Islamophobic sentiments

Sam Altman’s Vision for the Future

OpenAI CEO on progress, safety, and policy

Most popular

Sam Altman’s Vision for the Future

OpenAI CEO on progress, safety, and policy

How Does Hate Spread?

Harvard symposium probes antisemitic, Islamophobic sentiments

Artificial Intelligence in the Academy

Harvard symposium assesses the new technology.

More to explore

How is Artificial Intelligence Being Taught at Harvard?

A new Harvard course on artificial intelligence teaches students how to use the tool responsibly.

The Evolution of Human Fathers

Exploring the evolutionary biology of human fathers as caretakers

Civil War American Writer and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier

Homes of the poet and abolitionist, whose verses were said to have inspired Abraham Lincoln.