Drew Gilpin Faust, who was confirmed as Harvard's new leader on Sunday, has another presidential connection in the Ivy League: She's descended from two past presidents of Princeton.
Among her ancestors, Faust counts the University's second president, Aaron Burr, Sr., and Jonathan Edwards, the University's third president.
They are far from the only Tigers in Faust's family tree. More recent Princetonian family members include her father, M. Tyson Gilpin '42, and two brothers, M. Tyson Gilpin Jr. '65 and Donald Gilpin '73. Her uncle, Kenneth Gilpin Jr. '44, and cousin, Thomas Gilpin '75, also graduated from the University.
And that's just on her father's side. Her mother's family, the Slacks, includes several other Princeton alumni.
Faust applied to college in the mid-1960s, before Princeton accepted its first female undergraduates.
"She grew up in such a Princeton tradition that I think she was glad to get away from it," her brother Tyson said in an interview. She graduated from the all-female Bryn Mawr College in 1968 and earned her doctorate in American civilization at Penn in 1975.
Afterwards, Faust taught at Penn for more than two decades, until being hired as dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Faust is a historian of the Civil War and the American South and the author of five books on the subject.
She is known for defying tradition, and as a teenager she rebelled against the idea of being a debutante in Virginia, where she grew up. "She took off from Virginia because she knew there weren't opportunities for women," her brother Tyson said.
Both Faust's brother and her cousin, Thomas, said they were delighted that their sister had been tapped for her new position, despite their rival Ivy League affiliations.
"We're just very proud of her and just very happy that she's gotten such a prodigious post," Thomas said. As to whether or not Faust's position represents any conflict of interest for either Harvard or Princeton, he joked, "They are both pretty good schools."
Tyson Gilpin said that, by being selected as president of Harvard, Faust "really has gotten herself in a position to accomplish what she has always wanted to do ... create communication."
But he added that, while the Harvard presidency is "a good outlet for her, it's too bad she couldn't be president of Princeton."
Should Faust need any help during her tenure, her brother said he has a plan for his younger sister.
"I recommend[ed that] she check with Shirley [Tilghman] if she has any questions," Tyson said. "I don't know if she likes that advice."
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