Politics & Government

5 Lafayette College-Joe Biden Connections

The Vice President may be from Scranton, but he has ties to Easton's college.

Before he was Vice President, Joe Biden was one of Delaware's senators. Before that, he was a kid in Scranton.

But he also some ties to , as people there learned Wednesday when .

Here are five ways he's connected to the school.

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1. His chief-of-staff graduated from Lafayette in 1988. Alan Hoffman worked as Biden's chief-of-staff while he was still a senator, the college said in a news release, and transitioned into his current job after the 2008 election.

2. Biden's great-grandfather is an 1875 graduate of Lafayette. He used his great-grandfather's story during his lecture, to talk about the technological advancements of that age. At the end of the lecture, Lafayette President presented Biden with a framed map of the school as it appeared in 1875, featuring a picture of his great-grandfather, Edward Francis Blewitt.

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3. Two of his great uncles -- Arthur Joseph Blewitt and Robert Patrick Blewitt -- also graduated from Lafayette. According to the Express-Times, Biden got a chance before the lecture to review documents relating to their time there. 

4. Biden visited the college in 1963, when the University of Delaware played Lafayette in football, and won.

5. And Jim Hall, one of the Secret Service agents assigned to protect Biden, attended Lafayette from 1986 to 1990 and played as a linebacker for the Leopards. (This news brought some of the night's most enthusiastic cheers.) Had Hall been playing in that 1963 game, Biden said, Lafayette might have won.


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